Resumen
This empirical research focused on examining the relationship between family meetings and the characteristics of those family meetings (who participated and issues discussed), planning processes (succession planning, estate planning, family mission and business mission) and performance measures (revenues and number of generations survived). Small family businesses in a midwestern state were surveyed with 241 useable responses. Significant differences were found in the planning processes between businesses that held family meetings and those that did not. No differences were found for the performance measures. Significant relationships between family meetings and both planning processes and performance measures were found when comparing family businesses based on who participated in the family meetings - just holding meetings does not matter, but inclusiveness of those meetings does matter.