Organizational Psychology

Purpose. For our country, the growth of small business is one of the strategic directions of development. As the experience of European countries shows, the family business is the basis of its small forms. However, the question of psychological research of the specifics of family business is onlybeing raised in Russian science. The aim of this study was to compare the value orientations of small family and non-family business owners. Methodology. Factual base: entrepreneurs of micro and small business of family form of management — 63 people, of non-family form — 68 people. Groups are comparable in gender, age, education, religion of entrepreneurs; the age of the business and family; the number of children. In terms of methodology, we used the author’s approach to research — a projective in-depth interview “Value orientations of entrepreneurs in the field of family and business.” The results were processed in the R program using the χ² method, τ Kendall’s correlation analysis and logistic regression. Findings. The study revealed the small number of significant differences in thevalue orientations of owners of two forms of business. So, out of 213 value variables, only 13 were significantly distinguishable in two types of business (p-value ≤ 0.05). The logistic regression model atthe level of 70.2% made it possible to identify significant value orientations that predict the likelihood of starting a family business. Negatively connected with this form of business were the value orientations “Matrimonial Love”, “Decency in relations with the spouse” and “Public relations”. The main conclusionsdrawn from the results obtained were: VO of owners of family and non-family businesses are poorly differentiated; management in family firms is more intuitive, less formalized than in non-family firms; a family business is a business of “partnership” and pragmatic family relationships (not conjugal love); with low external communication. Value of results. Thus, the family business in our country is missing out on its key advantage in the market: does not support or convey the traditional values of business families that could improve business reputation in the perception of consumers. The results of this research can be used to plan measures of state support for family business by helping the process of self-identification of this form of business.