Sustainable Entrepreneurship: Family Firms as Sustainability Pioneers

Abstract

Future-oriented companies have long recognized the call for sustainability to be an important strategic success factor rather than a short-term trend (Lacy et al. 2010; Nidumolu et al. 2009; Schaltegger et al. 2011). Younger customers in particular are increasingly demanding intelligent and sustainable product and service offerings, and employees prefer working for companies with a proven sustainability track record (Jenkin 2015). First signs of this re-evaluation of values have already become apparent—fair trade fashion has never been so chic, organic food has never so in demand, and sustainable employers have never been more popular than they are today (Zukunftsinstitut 2016).