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The purpose of this study is to systematically examine the advantages and disadvantages of different types of family businesses operating in Europe. For this, we make a distinction between a firm’s family and business orientation. The two dimensions are used to develop a space of family businesses that include ‘Houses of Business’, ‘Family Money Machines’, ‘Family Life Traditions’, and ‘Hobby Salons’. We argue that the firm’s location in the orientation space, which may change over time, relates to specific competitive strengths and weaknesses. In the first part of this study, we test the validity of the dimensions. Our empirical research among family businesses (n=220) shows that, based on the orientations, different types of firms co-exist. As expected, we find that differences in family and business orientation result in different advantages and disadvantages with respect to performance indicators such as motivation …