The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) recently released the 20^th edition of its “GEM Family Entrepreneurship” report in which it discusses family entrepreneurship across the world and looks at the family’s contribution to entrepreneurship worldwide. In details, the entrepreneurship report collected data from 150,000 adults from 48 countries. In this vein, the report explains the role of families in both the entrepreneurship and established business phases across different economies. The report focuses on the rates and forms of family involvement in entrepreneurship, the rates and forms of family involvement in established business activity, in addition to market innovation and job creation in each of them. The survey results indicate that respondents are either owners/managers of businesses or were directly involved in the development of a new business. Furthermore, the report stated that starting and developing a new business make up GEM’s Total Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA). In figures, 74.9% of entrepreneurs and 81.3% of established business owners included in the report either co-own and/or co-manage their businesses with family members. The report breaks down total entrepreneurial activity with family involvement into 4 groups: non-family, family co-owned & co-managed, family co-owned & not co-managed, and family co-managed & not co-owned. In terms of TEA, Lebanon came in second among all MENA countries surveyed in the report with a family involvement of 77.8%, trailing Madagascar (95.4%). Lebanon’s result exceeded the world average of 74.9%. The report noted that established business ownership rates with family involvement are normally lower than TEA rates, attributing said difference to the fact that not all startups will become mature companies. In this respect, Lebanon came in 2^nd to last position with a business activity score of 69.7%, besting Egypt only (67.8%) and coming below the world average score of 81.3%.

In this context, the charts below depict the breakdown of family entrepreneurship in Lebanon in terms of TEA and established business activity:

Furthermore, the report mentioned that some family entrepreneurships and business owners may hire family members to work with them. Accordingly, 57.1% of family entrepreneurs in surveyed countries (compared to 55.2% in Lebanon) expect that over the coming five years, the majority of their employees will be family members, while this figure rises to 61.8% among established business owners (compared to 74.8% in Lebanon). From another standpoint, the report highlighted that market innovation levels are elevated in family entrepreneurs in most economies, with 41.6% of entrepreneurs and 30.6% of family established business owners from the 48 countries assessed in the report having innovative products or services in the market. These innovation related statistics in the case of Lebanon are higher, standing at 57.6% of entrepreneurs and 40.9% for family established business owners. The statistics for the MENA region are shown below:

In addition, the GEM report suggests that policymakers support the entrepreneurial ambitions and business sustainability of families, while adding that certain policies and programs that might help them achieve their entrepreneurial ambitions and business sustainability should be considered. In a final note, the report stated that family related entrepreneurial development should consider the expertise, skills, ambitions, and efforts of the family as a whole rather than focusing on its individual players, citing in this respect that families provide more trust, capital, effort and resources to business creation and business development.