Family entrepreneurship culture, entrepreneurial intent, futures and foresight in Scottish Pakistani communities Claire Seaman*, Richard Bent, Ashley Unis Queen Margaret University Edinburgh, EH21 6UU, Scotland, United Kingdom A R T I C L E I N F O Article history: Received 16 September 2015 Accepted 23 September 2015 Available online 26 November 2015 Keywords: Family Family business Entrepreneurial aspiration Succession Business families A B S T R A C T Family businesses are an important sector of the economy and the Pakistani community in Scotland has as long been associated with the creation of family businesses, the vast majority of which remain in the first generation to settle in Scotland. Their future ownership remains unclear and is a matter of some economic and social importance. The current paper reviews the literature around culture, entrepreneurial intent and aspirations within this distinct community to provide foresight on the factors likely to influence future plans. By aligning this work with current literature from the field of family business, the paper develops foresight be considering both the community and business aspects as part of a coherent whole. The future for the businesses owned and managed by the Pakistani community in Scotland is likely to be mixed, as some develop toward heritage business status whilst others fall victim to changing economic conditions. Highly varied aspirations for the next generation also play a role as some but by no means all families see the continuation of the family business as the ideal. ã 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Family businesses remain the most common form of business in Scotland and beyond (Seaman, McQuaid, & Pearson, 2014; Sharma, 2004) run by families in a wide variety of different communities, with distinct cultures and aspirations for the future of the family and the business. The Pakistani community has long been associated with entrepreneurial behavior and the creation of family businesses, but Scotland’s Pakistani family business community differs from the general Scottish family business community in one vital respect: in terms of generational control, the vast majority of businesses are still controlled by the first generation to settle in Scotland and their future ownership remains unclear (Scottish Government, 2007). Data on the general family business community in Scotland is relatively sparse, but two reports from the Scottish Government are pertinent to the current discussion. The Scottish Executive Annual Survey of Small Businesses in Scotland was published in 2005 and 2007 and indicates relatively consistently that while around 70% of all Scottish family businesses remain under the control of the first generation, among minority ethnic groups the figure rises to about 97%. Other data from the survey indicates that the profile of businesses operated by minority ethnic groups is not substantially different from the general community. The distinction appears only in terms of generational control and the reasons are unclear. This paper explores the future of family businesses from one distinct community which resulted from migration from Pakistan to Scotland, either directly or via other countries. Cultural differences, added to the very distinct business format * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: cseaman@qmu.ac.uk (C. Seaman), rbent@qmu.ac.uk (R. Bent), Ashley@mrsunis.com (A. Unis). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2015.09.006 0016-3287/ ã 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Futures 75 (2016) 83–91 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Futures journal homepa ge: www.elsevier.com/locate/futures