For Family and Country: Enduring Entrepreneurial Family Firms in South Africa in the Twentieth Century

Since early seventeenth-century settlement, families established enterprises in agriculture, trade and mining, while the context of settlement, colony and state changed from dependence to independence. Family businesses survived political turmoil, but also enabled regional economic development through the development of enterprise growth, diversification and internationalisation. From agriculture family enterprises also emerged in mining, industry and trade and expanded into global markets. Industrial development since the late 1920s facilitated the emergence of industrial enterprises to dovetail large conglomerates and state-owned enterprises. Small- and medium-sized family enterprises are the most prevalent in South Africa.