Mrs Cindy Nhlapo, Prof Stephan Van Der Merwe

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to get insights from the different dynamics copreneurs have to manage in the two intertwined worlds of business and romance. The study starts with a literature review to understand copreneurship and an empirical research study, interviewing ten copreneurs using semi-structured face-to-face interviews to collect data. The study, through the six themes, identified role allocation, separating business and home issues, conflict management, the measurement of business growth, and the involvement of family members in the business revealed that copreneurship is composed of challenges and benefits. The participants cited that copreneurship gives the business a unique, difficult-to- imitate competitive advantage and also provided recommendations for success to existing and aspiring copreneurs. This study contributes to the existing literature on and practice of entrepreneurship, family businesses and copreneurship within a specific geographic context of the participants.