EVOLUTION OF LEONTIEVS' FAMILY BUSINESS IN XIX AND EARLY XX CENTURIES

Family businesses represent a major economic factor in the Russian Empire. The article illustrates the importance and problems associated with the efficiency of the family firm on the basis of empirical data of Leontievs' industrial business (XIX and early XX centuries). Our objective is to examine individual and group interests and their effect on family business succession. Several implications are drawn. One of these is that Old Believers values place family business in a sociocultural context in which the interpersonal relationships inside and outside the business family are subject to a variety of ethnic and religious environment influences. Examining family firms in their organizational context provides more complete understanding of the dynamics underlying choices and activities in family business.