The Role of Values in Family Business

Abstract

Due to the inseparability and synergy between family and business in family firms, family relationships, as well as family resources, are increasingly understood to be crucial elements in family business dynamics, keeping the family and the business as interdependent domains. It therefore becomes increasingly difficult to speak of separate principles, values, and obligations. Accordingly, some researchers suggest that vital synergies for business can arise from family values, and they argue that a persisting commitment to values is the greatest value a family can bring to business ownership inasmuch as values can function similarly to ‘glue’ that bonds family and business. When considering the complex and enmeshed system of multigenerational family business, with numerous complicated levels of relationships, responsibility, and loyalties across generations, identifying how values work across time and space, and how they support the strength of the family business remains a fundamental issue that needs serious reflection. This chapter highlights how family values can drive business, and how they can engage people across generations, maintaining a high degree of social and personal cohesiveness within the family and across the generations.