Mixing family and business can be a challenge in itself, dealing with siblings and technologically-challenged parents.

And when times turn tough, family-run operations can be affected differently to non-family businesses.

Bond University’s Australian Centre for Family Business (ACFB) is undertaking a nationwide survey comparing the performance of family-owned companies to their non-family owned counterparts in the current economic climate.

The project is a joint initiative with KPMG and Family Business Australia (FBA) and is the fifth annual family business survey to be conducted.

Six thousand Australian businesses will receive the survey over the coming weeks which will extract key information about issues including resilience, generational succession, and the impact of the global financial crisis and climate change.

Dr Justin Craig, co-director of Bond University’s ACFB, said this year’s survey will provide important insights into family business.

“For the first time, non-family businesses are included in the sample of respondents so we can demonstrate exactly how the current financial turmoil is affecting different sectors of the market,’’ he said.

“Traditionally, research has shown that family businesses often surpass their corporate-owned competitors in terms of success, and we hope to see a similar sentiment of resilience in this year’s survey.’’

Preliminary survey results will be announced at FBA’s 11th National Family Business Conference hosted in Darwin in August. The final report will be released by the end of August, including commentary from family business owners, advisors and academics.