Retaining the adolescent workforce in family businesses

Purpose: To critically explore the linkage between adolescent work, parent-child relationships and offspring career choice outcomes in a family business context. It examines the above in light of the stay/go decision faced by adolescent family members. Design/methodology/approach: Findings are derived from semi-structured interviews with 15 individuals from five Italian families operating family catering businesses in Yorkshire (UK). The approach represents a sample spanning four generations, designed to capture data from individuals who had experienced adolescent work at the family business. Findings: The findings offer evidence that the 'familiarity' of family business impacts on offspring career choices, providing a safety net or a trap which can impede exit decisions. Returning after periods of study leave that represent the transition from adolescence to adulthood, offspring continue to use the family business as a base from which to explore their career options. Alternatively, when parent-child relationships break down, family business escape strategies assume priority for offspring. Research limitations/implications: The study focused exclusively on migrant Italian families within the catering sector. The sample included different generational representations among the five families. It lays the ground for future research of a similar nature among other family business ethnicities and across other economic sectors. Originality/value: This paper contributes to understanding offspring career choice outcomes in a family business context. The empirical evidence suggests that parent-child relationships are instrumental to understanding the stay/go decision as well as previous stages of the socialisation process of embedding in the family business.