Family Business "structure": A Special Kind Of Organizational Structure

As a kind of institution planning, family business’being is reasonable and its state of development has directly influence on the development of Chinese economy and society. Differential mode of association is a classical concept of the indigenization of sociology, which was born in traditional Chinese society. Family businesses are just commonly exiting and developing in this special social mode. We should pay more attention on the embedment of family businesses within social networks. As the existence of motive power of repeated practice and reproduction, the differential mode of association can maintain its function normally. The orientation of difference of resource allocation, especially in human resource, interest resource and power resource, is typical characteristic of differential mode of association in family businesses. Based on the basic peculiarities in Chinese society, the allocating resources system of the market and the economy reform and society transformation, this paper clarified the concept of differential mode of association from traditional and modern angles. It systematically investigated its existence and functions. In the theory of family culture and relations, it deeply analyses the differential mode of association. Then it tried hard to point out the structural weaknesses of this mode. Finally it recommended appropriate solutions to support the sustainable development of family businesses.This paper has five parts. The first part is introduction. It described the research background and raised points of study. The second part is literature review. It firstly reviewed the relevant literature of family businesses and the differential mode of association. Secondly it made a comment on research status. Then it pointed out and described the research purpose, significance, contents and methods. The third part is about the differential mode of association. It firstly reviewed the concept differential mode of association through the comparative analysis on pattern of community and differential mode of association. Secondly it deeply pointed out the characters and structure of this mode. Finally it gave a modern analysis to this mode. The fourth part is the differential mode of association and family businesses. It firstly defined the core concepts. Secondly it described its function mechanism and then deeply analyses the differential mode of association in the theory of family culture and relations. In the next two parts, it pointed out the characters and structural weaknesses of the differential mode of association in family businesses. Finally it recommended appropriate solutions to better the differential mode of association in family businesses from the cultural logic, management logic and inheritance logic. The fifth part is conclusion and inspiration. It mainly combed the important conclusions and concluded the under-researched and research prospect of this paper.