A RELATIONAL MODEL EXPLAINING WORK AND RELATIONSHIP OUTCOMES OF CO-ENTREPRENEURS ÅSA M. BJÖRNBERG London School of Economics and Political Science Houghton Street London WC2A 2AE JACQUELINE A-M. COYLE-SHAPIRO London School of Economics and Political Science Many successful businesses start their lives as small enterprises, and a high proportion of these are the brainchildren of copreneurs. Despite recent advances in the family business field, a void still exists in the area of copreneurship. What makes these relationships successful? What enhances partners’ commitment and satisfaction within the copreneurial relationship? We propose a theoretical model based on exchange and communal relationships as a foundation for understanding the work and personal outcomes associated with copreneurship to include commitment to business, business performance and work and marital satisfaction. Copreneurs offer a rich and novel context in which to explore relational frameworks. Copreneurs are regarded as a subset of dual career couples and family businesses (Marshack, 1994b). Barnett and Barnett (1988) coined the phrase “copreneur” to describe couples who are both romantically and professionally involved. Fitzgerald and Muske (2002: 14) formulated a definition of copreneurs which we aim to apply in our analysis. They stated that copreneurs 1) are involved in a marriage or marriage-like relationship, 2) both work in the business and 3) both are joint decision-makers in the business. Ownership is deliberately excluded from this definition, since shared property in marriage is usually a matter of statutory rights. Empirical research on copreneurs is scant and generally addresses two issues: the demographics of entrepreneurial couples (Fitzgerald & Muske, 2002; Muske & Fitzgerald, 2006) and the challenges and benefits these couples derive from their working relationship (Jennings & McDougald, 2007; Marshack, 1993; Smith, 2000; Foley & Powell, 1997; Goffee & Scase, 1985; Jaffee, 1997). In our analysis, we extend the integrated systems perspective (Kanter, 1977) to include communal and exchange relationships, offering a more comprehensive understanding of relational dynamics and outcomes in copreneurial couples. Copreneurs provide a unique context in which to examine exchange processes and the norm of reciprocity offering a different agentic perspective to the traditional application of social exchange theory in employee-organizational settings. Furthermore, copreneurs also have a romantic relationship which we view through a communal lens and examine how the two concurrent relationships impact upon business and personal outcomes. Exchange and communal relationships “Communal” relationships are contrasted with “exchange” relationships in the literature. Four main conditions exist in the creation and maintenance of communal relationships. The first of these is the necessary norms that guide the relationships. Communal relationships are different