Family Entrepreneurship: Reflections on Social and Legal Reality
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17323/2072-8166.2026.3.233.260Keywords:
entrepreneurship law, family law, family, family values, family entrepreneurship, small business, entrepreneurship supportAbstract
The close connection between family and commercial/trade activities may be traced throughout human history. The family, as a social institution, determines the subject composition and certain features of conducting business activities. In the doctrine of Russian law, a belief is emerging that family-based entrepreneurship needs to be legalized and formally established. A general analysis of this concept has made it possible to identify its main elements: to legally define the concept of a family enterprise and to create a special system of state support measures. This approach makes it possible to use systemic and structural-functional methods to assess the feasibility of combining family and entrepreneurial elements in a single configuration and to determine the validity of granting special advantages in commodity markets. During the study, the thesis that there are significant obstacles to the implementation of the family business model was confirmed. The doctrinal characteristics of family businesses lack the necessary justification and raise doubts from the perspective of legal technique. A structural analysis of the specific features of the family business concept has revealed a number of issues that require doctrinal understanding. The feasibility of introducing a new legal form, as well as special preferences for family businesses, needs to be thoroughly substantiated. Conceptual analysis should take into account social reality and should not be based on an idealized view of the family. It is necessary to fully analyze, on the one hand, the destructive impact of entrepreneurial interest on the internal climate of the family, and, on the other hand, the effect of family troubles on business operations. The possibility of combining the principles of family law and entrepreneurial law appears to be a matter of debate. From the perspective of solving practical problems, the difficulties lie in the incompatibility of decision-making models in family and corporate law, differences in contractual forms, the establishment of family preferences in the regulation of labour relations, and the potential incompatibility of the special regime of family entrepreneurship with the fundamental prohibitions of antitrust legislation. The author’s considerations regarding the issues of family-owned businesses should be viewed as an element of doctrinal discussion, as arguments that should be taken into account in the process of potentially developing special legislation.
References
Arsentyev V.M.1, Makushev A.E. (2022) The Alafuzov family firm in times of corporatization in the late 19th — early 20th century. Ural’skij istoricheskij vestnik=Ural Historical Bulletin, no. 2, pp. 185–194 (in Russ.)
Baltutite I. (2024) The development of family entrepreneurship in Russia: prospects and main directions of state policy. Pravovaya paradigma=Legal Paradigm, no. 2, pp. 42–47 (in Russ.)
Barkova L.A. (2014) Legal means of realization of family politics of providing of harmonization of family interests in the entrepreneurial sphere. Vestnik Tverskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriya: Pravo=Bulletin of Tver State University. Series: Law, no. 3, pp. 340–351 (in Russ.)
Baryshnikov M.N. (2018) History of family business in Russia: Bogdanovs and E.N. Shaposhnikova. Vestnik Sankt-Peterburgskogo universiteta. Menedzhment=Bulletin of Saint Petersburg University. Management, no. 2, pp. 231–250 (in Russ.)
Baryshnikov M.N. (2018) Family business and development of oil fields in Russia in early twentieth century. Universitetskij nauchnyj zhurnal=Universities Scholar Journal, no. 36, pp. 15–36 (in Russ.)
Bezhentsev A.A. (2022) Homelessness, vagrancy and begging of minors: definitions, determinants, warning. Vestnik ekonomicheskoj bezopasnosti=Bulletin of Economic Security, no. 5, pp. 26–29 (in Russ.)
Boldyrev V.A. (2025) Family entrepreneurship: legal regulation and government support. Russkii zakon=Lex Russica, no. 3, pp. 9–20 (in Russ.)
Ershova I.V. (2022) Family business: points and a vector of reference in legal regulation. Aktual`ny`e problemy rossijskogo prava=Current Issues of Russian Law, no. 11, pp. 67–75 (in Russ.)
Ignatiev A.A. (1988) Fifty years in the ranks. Moscow: Voenizdat, 752 p. (in Russ.)
Klepalova J.I. (2022) Limits of individual contractual regulation of labor relations. Zhurnal rossiiskogo prava=Journal of Russian Law, no. 3, pp. 101–112. (in Russ.)
Lebedeva E.V. (2025) Joint entrepreneurial activities of spouses. Vestnik Saratovskoj yuridicheskoj akademii=Bulletin of Saratov Law Academy, no. 1, pp. 182–187 (in Russ.)
Levushkin A.N. (2023) The concept of family business legitimation in the context of private law and public law regulation. Aktual`ny`e problemy` rossijskogo prava=Current Issues of Russian Law, no. 8, pp. 90–99 (in Russ.)
Matytsin D.E., Fedorova P.A. (2026) Use of digital technologies in family business: legal aspects. Rossijskoe pravosudie=Russian Justice, no. 4, pp. 75–85 (in Russ.)
Melnikov P. Yu. (2023) «Without division, it’s faster, but you will take a lot of sin on your soul». a big peasant family in the Russian empire in the 19th century: main development trends. Izvestiya Saratovskogo universiteta=Bulletin of Saratov University, no. 1, pp. 12–16 (in Russ.)
Nagornaya M.A. (2011) Peculiarities of peasant family divisions in Western Siberia in second half of the 19th — early 20th centuries. Vestnik Omskogo universiteta=Bulletin of Omsk University, no. 3, pp. 115–121 (in Russ.)
Ovcharov A.O., Ovcharova T.N. (2021) The welfare state at the present stage: the potential of paternalism and failures of governance in crisis conditions. Sibirskij filosofskij zhurnal=Siberian Philosophical Journal, no. 4, pp. 71–86 (in Russ.)
Panova A.S. (2025) The current state of legal regulation of family entrepreneurship and the digitalization of trade turnover. Vestnik MGUA=Bulletin of MGUA, no. 7, pp. 127–134 (in Russ.)
Pisareva O.M. (2025) Analysis of the problems and potential of the development of family entrepreneurship in the Russian Federation. Modernizaciya. Innovacii. Razvitie=Modernization. Innovation. Development, no. 1, pp. 134–152 (in Russ.)
Rubinstein A. Ya. (2016) Introduction to general theory of defects of mixed economy. Prostranstvennaya ekonomika=Spatial Economics, no. 4, pp. 13–32 (in Russ.)
Rubinshtein A.Y., Gorodetsky A.E. (2018) State paternalism and paternalist failure in the theory of patronized good. Zhurnal institucional`ny`x issledovanij=Journal of Institutional Research, no. 4, pp. 38–57 (in Russ.)
Savin S.D., Shchepelkov V.F., Sidorova A.N. (2025) Domestic violence as a social problem in the Russian society: between privacy and publicity. Vestnik Rossijskogo universiteta druzhby` narodov. Seriya: Sociologiya=Bulletin of the Peoples’ Friendship University. Series: Sociology, no. 1, pp. 64–78 (in Russ.)
Selivanova O.V., Korobkova N.Yu. (2024) Single-parent families in the Russian regions: scale and socio-economic characteristics. Social`no-trudovy`e issledovaniya=Social and Labor Research, no. 1, pp. 147–156 (in Russ.)
Sorokin P.A. (2018) Crisis of our time. Russia and the United States. Syktyvkar: Anbur Press, 640 p. (in Russ.)
Tretyakov A.V. (2022) Family entrepreneurship in Russia in the russian historiography of the late 19th-early 20th centuries. Uchenye zapiski. Elektronny`j nauchnyi zhurnal Kurskogo universiteta=Scholar notes. Electronic Journal of Kursk University, no. 2, pp. 69–80 (in Russ.)
Ulianova G.N. (2021) Succession as an economic and moral basis for moscow merchant family firms’ activities (19th — early 20th century). Uralskij istoricheskij vestnik=Ural Historical Bulletin, no. 3, pp. 107–115 (in Russ.)
Ulianova G. (2023) Three bankruptcies: the decline of family business in the practices of women entrepreneurs in Moscow, 1830s to 1880s. Elektronnyi zhurnal «Istoriya»=Electronic journal History, no. 3, p. 5. (in Russ.)
Usacheva E.A. (2022) Legal consequences of marital relationship actual termination for the property relationships of spouses. Pravo. Zhurnal Vysshey shkoly ekonomiki=Law. Journal of the Higher School of Economics, vol. 14, no. 4, pp. 91–111 (in Russ.)
Vasilyev M. (2012) Family firm: evolution of North American scholars views. Problemy` teorii i praktiki upravleniya=Issues of Management Theory and Practice, no. 6, pp. 27–38 (in Russ.)
Volosova N.Yu, Balovneva V.I. (2022) The current state of prevention of family (domestic) violence against children in the Russian Federation. Voprosy` rossijskogo i mezhdunarodnogo prava=Issues of Russian and International Law, no. 2, pp. 341–348 (in Russ.)
Zubareva O.G., Krupnova A.L. (2024) Family entrepreneurship in 2024: a value reset. Severo-Kavkazskij yuridicheskij vestnik=North Caucasian Law Bulletin, no. 2, pp. 109–115 (in Russ.)
Zvorykina J.V., Pisareva O.M., Putilov K.S. (2025) Development of family entrepreneurship in the Russian Federation: qualification and classification aspects of institutionalization. Vestnik universitetov=The Universities Bulletin, no. 9, pp. 116–127 (in Russ.)
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Baukin V.G.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
