How does the territorial embeddedness of the family business help the generation of social value? Three dynamics of sustainable social value generation and some practical lessons
Abstract
This article gathers a set of insights and identifies three dynamics applied by family businesses to sustain their social value, which is the focus of this special issue. In the paper, the approach is the family business embeddedness, and specifically the embeddedness of the owning family in the territory. The main implications of this article are, on the one hand, evidencing the potential contribution of business families to the social welfare; and, on the other hand, to provide examples that inspire the territorial policies and that encourage business families to participate in projects that go beyond the family business boundaries. The contributions of this study are based on the author’s previous research, made in collaboration with the Provincial Council, the Commerce Federation, and the Chamber of Commerce of Gipuzkoa. She studied the roots of the family in the territory, the social responsibility of companies and families and their social and economic contribution. She has also organized more than twenty family business conferences and has personally interviewed more than fifty businesspeople from different generations.
Received: 18 October 2021
Accepted: 25 January 2022
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