Are family businesses values-driven organization? An exploratory research

This chapter investigates how values become strong identity elements in family businesses. The aim is to identify the peculiarities inherent to this kind of business to address other business models and to better understand and follow the principles that shape family businesses. The research was conducted using the NVivo 12 software for a sample of 3 family businesses. Findings challenge the existing literature and offer direction for future scholarly research. Evidence from this study suggests that family values are the heart of the family business culture and are based on the figure of the “father”. A family guards this type of firm by protecting, developing and transmitting the firm to its successors, thus creating a link between the old and new generations to conserve and preserve the values, and spread them with the territory where the family firm is embedded.