Family businesses, trying to beat the dismal odds of handing a company down through generations, often turn to their children as a source of future owner-managers.

But it's a tricky task if entrepreneurs want to avoid blow-ups like those at high-profile family-controlled companies, such as Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., owner of the Fox News network.

According to a report by Gannett News Service, children aren't always suited to the family business, because they aren't born with the founder's work ethic. Their interests might send them on a radically different career path. Choosing one child as CEO over others can split a family in two.

More than ever, there's competition among siblings because more families are now considering women, not just men, as future CEOs and owners, says Nan Langowitz, associate management professor at Babson College. For many of those reasons, only about 12 percent of family businesses make it to the third generation, and just 3 percent make it to the fourth generation, says the Family Firm Institute trade group.

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