The wealthiest family business owners are recognized as economically powerful, but there is little theoretical underpinning to explain how their behavior differs from their counterparts. To increase our understanding of family firm owners we draw on literature to introduce the concept of the rentier which we contrast with the socioemotional wealth (SEW) perspective of ownership. We test contrasting predictions by examining the strategic behavior of the one percent wealthiest business owning households in the United States using data from Federal Reserve Board’s 2013 Survey of Consumer Finance. Our findings depict an entrepreneurial category of owners who blend aspects of both rentier and SEW modes, but suggest important shortcomings of both perspectives.

最富裕的家族企业主被认为具有强大的经济实力，但没有什么理论依据可以解释他们的行为与同行之间的差异。为了增加对家族企业所有者的理解，我们借鉴文献介绍了食利者的概念，并与所有权的社会情感财富（SEW）观点进行了对比。通过使用美国联邦储备委员会（Federal Reserve Board）2013年消费者金融调查的数据，我们检查了美国最富有的1％拥有商业的家庭的战略行为，从而检验了不同的预测。我们的研究结果描绘了企业家的企业家类别，他们融合了食利者和SEW模式的各个方面，但暗示了这两种观点的重要缺陷。