Family business longevity examined in a new light

In this issue, we celebrate the longevity of America’s oldest family businesses—companies that have been continuously owned by the same family for 155 years or more. Sustaining a family enterprise for more than a century and a half is a truly remarkable achievement. But does that mean family companies that last for only two or three generations are a failure? Should we consider families who have exited their businesses as less accomplished than those who continue to operate the legacy company—even if those who sell their businesses use the proceeds to create new, and greater, wealth? Why is business longevity so often viewed as the only meaningful measure of an enterprising family’s success?

A three-year study conducted under the auspices of the Family Firm Institute—a global association of researchers and advisers—aimed to reframe the view of family enterprise from a focus on operating companies to an assessment of value creation over time. The “FFI/Goodman Longevity Study,” completed in 2010, was conducted by Robert Nason, who was then at Babson College and is now pursuing a Ph.D. in entrepreneurship at Syracuse University, along with two European researchers: Mattias Nordqvist of Jönköping International Business School in Sweden and Thomas Zellweger of the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland. The study was funded in part by attorney and FFI member Joe Goodman. It will be published in a forthcoming issue of the field’s academic journal, Family Business Review.

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About the Author(s)

Barbara Spector

Barbara Spector is Family Business Magazine's editor-at-large.


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