IESE Research Papers
No D/542:
Characteristics of successful family businesses
Miguel A. Gallo ()
and Kristin Cappuyns ()
Abstract: In response to the statistics showing high mortality among
family businesses, this study looks at a group of Spanish family businesses
(FBs) that have demonstrated an ability to grow and innovate. Typically,
these FBs have gained prestige in the Spanish economy not only because they
have reached the top 1000, but also because they have stayed there for over
30 years. We collected data from interviews with the managers of 21 of the
64 companies that fulfilled both these conditions. Our aim was to learn
from these successful business leaders what, in their personal opinion, had
been the driving force behind their firms' success. The factors they
mentioned included a set of values that successful business families have
made a way of life. They are what we have called the "ELISA" values. These
values are the bedrock of these firms' culture, inspiring top performance,
reducing the cost of capital, and resolving other related issues that are
made easy to deal with by adherence to these values.
Keywords: family business; success factors; business culture; (follow links to similar papers)
14 pages, March 23, 2004
Before downloading any of the electronic versions below
you should read our statement on
copyright.
Download GhostScript
for viewing Postscript files and the
Acrobat Reader for viewing and printing pdf files.
Full text versions of the paper:
DI-0542-E.pdf 
Download Statistics
Questions (including download problems) about the papers in this series should be directed to Silvia Jimenez ()
Report other problems with accessing this service to Sune Karlsson ()
or Helena Lundin ().
Programing by
Design Joakim Ekebom
