Copreneurship

With the growth and evolution of entrepreneurship research in recent decades, new terminology has emerged to describe various types and dimensions of entrepreneurship. Copreneurship is one such term. It is a new term for an old pattern of work: husbands and wives or couples with marital or marital-like relationships working together in the same business.

Work relationships between husbands and wives jointly in a business are well documented historically. Not until the late 1980s, however, was this working relationship described specifically in an entrepreneurial context. Frank Barnett and Sharan Barnett, themselves a husband-and-wife team, coined the term copreneur in 1988 by blending the words couple and entrepreneur.

Three basic types of entrepreneurial couples may be distinguished: a solo entrepreneur with a supportive spouse/partner, a dual entrepreneurial couple, and a copreneurial couple. A solo entrepreneur with a supportive spouse is a situation in which one person is fully committed to and involved in the operation of the business and the other partner supports that person. Often this support is psychological or emotional support and encouragement, though it might also involve a small degree of “helping out” with the business. The solo entrepreneur makes the running of the enterprise his or her career, and the supportive partner may be employed outside the business pursuing a separate career. Dual entrepreneurs are couples in which each partner is committed to and involved in the running of a separate business. In contrast with the former two types of entrepreneurial couples, copreneurs are partners who are both involved in a joint business, and neither one pursues a career outside this business.

Although similar, the term coentrepreneur is different from copreneur. Copreneurs are a subset of the wider coentrepreneur group. Coentrepreneurs are any combination of two or more parties involved together in the operation of a business irrespective of marital status, gender, and division of work tasks and functions among them. “Involvement” is predominantly taken to mean ownership and management; for instance, two sisters involved together in owning and operating a business would considered coentrepreneurs, as would a separated or divorced heterosexual couple. The distinguishing characteristic of a copreneur is not only such coinvolvement but also the intimacy and marital or marital-like arrangement of two partners in a business venture. As Kathy Marshack has emphasized, the term copreneur represents more than the simple equation of marital partner plus business partner; it embodies the dynamic interface of the systems of love and work.

Copreneurial couples have chiefly been studied in the field of family business. Broadly and simply defined, a family business is owned or managed by one or more family members. Family businesses are regarded as the backbone of the global economic system and are estimated to contribute 50 percent of the U.S. gross national product, and around 67 percent to 90 percent of the world's firms are classified as family firms. Copreneurs are an important subset within this broad grouping. They are often identified as married or common-law couples who are in partnership in the business. In generic terms, copreneurs are couples in family businesses who share personal and work relationships.

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