Over 100 Years of Age But Still Entrepreneurially Active in Business: Exploring the Values and Family Characteristics of Old Finnish Family Firms

TLDR: In this article, a study of old Finnish family firms examined two main research questions: How do certain firms that have been involved in business for over one century perceive and rank their business values? and how do the members of the owner-families selfassess their family characteristics in these century-old family firms?

Abstract: This article, based on an exploratory study of old Finnish family firms, examines two main research questions: “How do certain firms that have been involved in business for over one century perceive and rank their business values?” and “How do the members of the owner-families selfassess their family characteristics in these century-old family firms?” There are only 68 companies that belong to either the FBN-Finland Association (Perheyritysten liitto ry) or the Association of Finnish Entrepreneurs (Suomen yrittajat ry) that are over 100 years of age. The data, based on self-assessments of the present active family executives working at the top level, were drawn from 10 FBN companies and 17 non-FBN companies (response rate 39.7%). When ranking the values, the Finnish respondents generally scored the desirable modes of conduct much higher than the desirable end-states. The top values were honesty, credibility, obeying the law, quality, and industriousness, which are all modes of good ethical conduct. The values of yielding good economic return to owners, willingness to grow, and to get social recognition all scored surprisingly low. The adjectives best describing the characteristics of owning families were: committed, responsible, fair, hardworking, and successful.