Previous studies about family business in Islamic value are still few. Accordingly, further study in that area is needed. The purpose of this research is to fulfil the need and to give the perspective about family business in Islamic insight. The role of faith and religious beliefs on ethical business practices becomes a highly pertinent question (Quddus, Bailey, and White, 2005). The overarching principles of Islam set the operating framework for every aspect of how business is conducted in the Moslem world. Interview is conducted in this research to six Moslems who have family business. The data is analyzed using multiple cases study. It shows the information about the definition of success and keys success factors in family business from Islamic values. The expected contribution is to give additional insight about family business in Islamic values. In this study, the types of family businesses are in difference industries, so the basic concept about the family business in Islamic insight can be generalized.
Islam is now the world’s second largest religion after Christianitya. Moslem in Indonesia is 203
million, which is the biggest Moslem population in the worldb. Actually Islam was spread in Indonesia
by the entrepreneurs, but the number of Indonesian entrepreneurs only reached 0.08% and a percentage
of it, few people is Moslemc. There are some papers have written success factors of family business for
examples: A Neglected Factor Explaining Family Business Success: Human Resource Practices
of Korean Immigrant Businesses in Metro-Atlanta (Nam and Herbert, 1999), Determinants of
Longevity and Success in Lebanese Family Businesses: An Exploratory Study (Sreih and Djoundourian,
2006), Exploration of Firm Performance Factors in Family Business: Do Families Value Only The
“Bottom Line”? (Castillo and Wakefield, 2007). In this paper, researchers attempt to fill in some of the
gaps in the literature on family business from Islamic perspective. The role of faith and religious
beliefs on ethical business practices becomes a highly pertinent question (Quddus, Bailey, and White,
2005). Previous studies about family business in Islamic value are still few. Accordingly, further study
in that area is needed. The purpose of this research is to fulfill the need and to give the perspective
about family business in Islamic insight. The overarching principles of Islam set the operating
framework for every aspect of how business is conducted in the Moslem world.
In Islam, the question of whether an act is considered a virtue or a vice is determined in the Qur’an
and Hadith (Sunnah), Prophet’s sayings and actions (Alhabshi, 1993; Abuznaid, 2009). It is not enough
for a Muslim to observe the five pillars of Islam, a Muslim has to make business decision that is guided
by faith (iman), which in practice means following law (syariah), and engaging in what is permitted
(halal), and avoiding what is forbidden (haram) (Allawneh, 1998; Abuznaid, 2009). So, a Moslem has
to distinguish between halal, i.e. ethical, and haram, i.e. unethical, right or wrong, fair and unfair, just
and unjust, and a good intention and bad intention (Abuznaid, 2009). The business decision maker has a
free choice, but religious principles provide a framework for the appropriate exercise of that choice (Ali
and Gibs, 1998; Abuznaid, 2009). So, how to reach the success in family business by Islamic value will
be discussed.
The Moslem family business owner and manager almost have convergent answers to define
success in family business and key success factor in family business. As stated above, appropriate with
the main purpose of this paper, this research has defined the definition about success business in
Islamic perspective is that family businesses can give more welfare to the stakeholders and useful to
the society. The key success factors in Islamic family business that are prescribed by the Holy Qur’an
and Hadith (Sunnah) are honest, charity, good intention and positive thinking on conflicts. The
contribution of this paper is to give additional insight in reaching the success of family business in
Islamic values. In this study, the types of family businesses are in difference industry, so the basic
concept about the family business in Islamic insight can be generalized. The limitation of this study are
the authors only do in six samples of family business, so for the future research can be done in more
than six samples. The authors suggest future research on the reason why the number of Islamic
entrepreneur is rare and how to increase that number.
