Analysis On Lifecycle Evolution Of Familial Agricultural Enterprises

As a form of enterprise organization with unyielding vitality, family business has attracted the confirmation and interest of academic studies and government policies in the recent decades. How to define Chinese family business in objective and reasonable opinions, propose practical analyses and suggestions for its development and actively seek for the feasible ways for the development of family business under the actual national background in China is a topic worth substantial investments. If we can fully understand and get familiar with the actual operational mode and changes of Chinese family business, we can observe the changes of the micro fields of Chinese society and economy in the local perspective and better master the tempo of the times. Therefore, study of family business is of great theoretical significance to the study of Chinese social science.As a kind of economic organization, family business is the essential product of market economy development theoretically. Seen from the development conditions of family business in China, family business locate broadly, not only in the coastal cities, but also in the inland China, among which, there is a special agricultural enterprise located in rural markets. There are countless agricultural enterprises in the vast rural areas in China and there are numerous such enterprises are operating in the mode of family business. They are also confronted with troubles in operations as the same with other family business, which is also in urgent demand of our attention. There are mainly two phenomena behind the rapid development of Chinese family business:the first is that Chinese family business are mostly in small scales and remain at the current scale after certain development; the second is that compared with family business in countries where market economy is developed, the lifecycle of Chinese family business is short, especially their average lifecycle is only three to four years. From the new perspective of lifecycle in observing family business, this article starts from the solutions of the short lifecycle of Chinese family business by lifecycle theory itself, analyzes and discusses the ups and downs, survival and development status quo of family business in the standard theoretical framework and finally draws the conclusions that can supplement the family business theories.This article tries to establish the analytical framework of the determinants in the preliminary stage of the lifecycle of agricultural family business. The framework regards the five corporate management factors such as "strategic management", "administrative structure", "successor candidate", "recruitment mechanism" and "corporate culture" as the characteristics determining the lifecycle of family business. The family business'step into the higher phase in the lifecycle is actually the dynamically optimized process of the combination of the aforementioned characteristics. This analytical framework is conducive to enhancing the operability of analyses of family business lifecycle evolution, providing basis for the application of lifecycle theory in the concrete case and providing inspiration for studying to promote the evolution of corporate lifecycle. Based on the case analyses of Wuliang cooperative and the conclusion about the corporate lifecycle phase, this article provides managerial suggestions for the evolution to higher stages in the lifecycle. At last, as the generalization of the analytical conclusion of this case, this article believes that establishment of modernized family business system is the long term development objective for the general family business in breaking through develop dilemma and finally achieving the evolution of lifecycle.