ORIGINAL PAPER Factors Associated with Long-Term Survival of Family Businesses: Duration Analysis Kathryn Stafford • Vibha Bhargava • Sharon M. Danes • George Haynes • Katherine E. Brewton Published online: 16 October 2010 Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010 Abstract This study identiﬁed factors inﬂuencing family business survival using National Family Business Panel and Spatial Hazard Events and Losses data. Sustainable Family Business Theory guided the use of a parametric duration model of long-term survival. Community char- acteristics, family achievements, family processes during change, business and owner characteristics, and business processes during stability affected long-term survival. Economic vulnerability of rural counties, family income from business, hiring temporary help, business size, viewing business as a way of life, and owner experience were associated with increased duration of business sur- vival. Being home-based, a female owner, and customer- focused were associated with decreased duration of sur- vival. Some family processes and achievements increased the duration of business survival; none decreased it. Keywords Family business  Family ﬁrm  Business owning family  Disaster resiliency  Family business sustainability  Family business survival  Duration analysis Extensive literature exists on how family ﬁrms need to operate for long-term survival, performance, growth and success (e.g., Bates 1990; Davidsson 1991; Hall 1991; Kalleberg and Leicht 1991; Korsching and Allen 2004; Olson et al. 2003; Sharfman and Dean 1991; Siegel et al. 1993). However, that literature emphasizes structures and roles primarily in the business system rather than resource processes in both family and ﬁrm. It seldom emphasizes family resource stocks and ﬂows that travel across porous boundaries between family and ﬁrm, especially in times of change. The literature emphasizes primarily internal busi- ness operations, often without recognizing the community environment in which the ﬁrm operates. Internal disrup- tions of family businesses have been investigated, but little emphasis has been placed on the effect that external dis- ruptions such as natural disasters have on long-term busi- ness survival. Furthermore, methodologically, the majority of the family ﬁrm survival literature has used logistic regression which does not take truncation of the data into account. This family business study addresses some of the aforementioned discrepancies in the literature. The pur- pose is to identify characteristics and processes of own- ing families and their businesses that increase business sustainability over the long-term. It is the ﬁrst study to investigate the survival duration of family businesses K. Stafford Department of Consumer Sciences, The Ohio State University, Campbell Hall 265B, 1787 Neil Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, USA e-mail: Kstafford@ehe.osu.edu V. Bhargava Department of Housing and Consumer Economics, Georgia State University, 104 Consumer Research Center (House C), 415 Sanford Drive, Athens, GA 30602, USA e-mail: Vibha@uga.edu S. M. Danes (&)  K. E. Brewton Department of Family Social Science, University of Minnesota, 290 McNeal Hall, 1985 Buford Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA e-mail: Sdanes@umn.edu K. E. Brewton e-mail: Brewt007@umn.edu G. Haynes Department of Agricultural Economics and Economics, Montana State University, 210E Linﬁeld Hall, Bozeman, MT 59717, USA e-mail: Haynes@montana.edu 123 J Fam Econ Iss (2010) 31:442–457 DOI 10.1007/s10834-010-9232-1