Family influence on value creation: a resource-based analysis of the value creation process in family firms

Abstract

Does family influence affect value creation within the firm? To answer this question this theoretical paper shows how family influence via power, experience, and culture leads to distinct resources, which then become input factors of the value creation process. Different types of values – human, ethical, intellectual, social, and financial values – are discussed as both, input and output factors of the value creation process. It will be shown that the value creation process itself involves all five types of values on three different levels of analysis: the individual, the group (family), and the organisation (firm). As the generation of further financial value on the long-run cannot be achieved without the employment of human, ethical, intellectual, and social values, managers and owners who are in charge of the well-being of a company have to concentrate not only on the financial value creation process, but also on the development of the rather soft values.