Narratives: a powerful device for values transmission in family businesses

Purpose – This paper seeks to shed light on how core values are successfully transmitted in family businesses via narratives. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative‐interpretive approach is used. Data were collected through in‐depth interviews made to 17 family members from three family businesses of different ages, sizes, industries, and generations in control. The richness of these interviews, besides its depth and length, emerges from the complete picture formed by the comparison of the stories told by different generations. Findings – Results suggest that narratives are a powerful device for transmitting values through generations. By telling stories, family businesses are able to build identity and shared meanings which led to successful performance in terms of revenues, reputation, shared identity, and continuity of the family business history. Research limitations/implications – This paper is exploratory. Further studies focusing on failure in transmitting values could enhance and expand emerging results. Deepening on values transmission may be a key research opportunity for general conceptualization. Originality/value – The paper raises interesting issues for the family business literature within the context of values, an important yet understudied topic in the field. It also contributes to narrative theory by highlighting the usefulness of narratives as a vehicle for values transmission.