Family Firms and Clean Technologies : A qualitative study exploring how a firm’s ownership status influences implementation of clean technologies

Sammanfattning: Abstract Background: Sustainability practices have become a crucial factor for firms since there are external and internal pressures that expect firms to act environmentally friendly. Especially within organizations that are owned by family, being sustainable enables them to pass their firm in a good condition to the next generation. One way firms can be sustainable is through adopting clean technology strategy as it can provide both environmental and economic benefits to firms. Being sustainable and having the ability to implement clean technology requires a long-term vision or long-term orientation (LTO); a characteristic often associated with family-controlled businesses (FCBs). Purpose: The purpose is to examine the adoption of clean technology within family-controlled firms (FCBs) and non-family-controlled firms (Non-FCBs). The aim is to explore if there are certain characteristics of FCBs that facilitate implementation of clean technologies. Method: This research is based on qualitative research method with an abductive approach and interpretivism philosophy. The primary data is collected through semi-structured interviews with four companies of which three are family-controlled businesses and one is a non-family- controlled business. Conclusion: FCBs are more inclined to invest in clean technologies. The extent to which a company does or does not implement clean technologies depends not only on the institutional values of an organization but also how deeply one or more of the three LTO dimensions are implanted in those values.