Mental Models for Sustainable Family Businesses
If we want to make our economy more sustainable, it is important to include family businesses in this change. Family businesses provide 45% of total employment in Belgium, and 77% of registered companies in Belgium are family businesses (1). However, you cannot support a family business like any other. The family itself is often heavily involved in the management of the business and has a strong influence on the strategic direction of a company. For example, long-term decisions in family businesses are made not only to ensure the profitability of the business, but also to secure employment in the local community, uphold the family's reputation, or build family capital (2,3). Therefore, if you want to drive a family business towards sustainability, you should also consider the impact on the family, not just the business and sustainability indicators.
The research
There is a lot of research on what levers and obstacles family businesses face in their evolution towards sustainability (4). These are mainly listings of factors. With our research, we want to identify causes and effects between these factors, and especially factors between the three relevant systems: the company, the environment and the family. In the research, based on a literature review and cognitive mapping with sustainability managers in family businesses, who are also family members themselves, we want to develop a theory of how the systems influence each other. Based on the literature, we develop an initial theory. With cognitive mapping, we interrogate the mental models of the sustainability managers: how do they experience the change towards sustainability of the company? How do they experience the interaction between the company, the environment and the family?
References
(1) Lambrecht and Molly, ‘Het economische belang van familiebedrijven in België’
(2) Berrone e.a., ‘Socioemotional Wealth and Corporate Responses to Institutional Pressures’
(3) Roessl, Kraus, and Fink, ‘Are Family Firms Fit For Innovation?’
(4) Vola e.a., ‘Drivers and Barriers to Sustainability in Family Businesses: A systematic literature review’
Expected output
By combining the mental models of sustainability managers in focus groups, we obtain a theory in the form of a causal loops diagram. These results are translated academically and practically. We write a conference contribution and publish in an academic journal. We also develop a workshop with key insights on guiding family businesses towards sustainability. This workshop will be delivered through networking organisations to sustainability managers in family businesses, and experts guiding family businesses.
