Preserving Values: When the Family is the Future. A qualitative study of pro-sustainable behavior in Swedish Family Businesses.

Sammanfattning: This thesis aims to explore how family values influence the sustainability practices of family businesses in a long-term perspective, using Schein's Model of Organizational Culture. A multiple-case study of three long-standing, fully family-controlled firms was constructed to examine the purpose of the study. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with family members from different generations and non-family members. The results from the research show that values significantly affect the firm's strategic decisions and that they notably originate from the family. Moreover, it can be seen that family businesses have subconsciously conducted sustainability practices in the past as a result of their values and basic assumptions. For older generations, it has not been referred to as sustainability work but rather as natural strategic decisions in line with their governing values to continue to exist in the long-term. An additional consequence of the long-term vision was the durability of the values and the unification around them. Finally, it becomes evident that family values triumph short-term financial profit maximization and that investments are made in light of long-term sustainability per the threefold definition of ecological, social, and economic factors.