Family business role models: Understanding role complexity

Article on the evolution of the three-circle model and the creation of new models as they apply to our understanding of the overlapping roles created by family enterprises. As almost all practitioners know, the three-circle model shows the overlapping roles of family, business and ownership where family members play overlapping roles in the intersection of these circles when they become owner-managers, family-employees, or family-owner-employees. These overlapping roles may lead to role conflicts as each system has different logics. Since the beginning, this model has become a widely used framework for its ease and graphic understanding and has been used as a comprehensive model for understanding the overlapping roles in a family business.