Chapter 11: Ethics and the Family Firm: A Climate for Healthy Families and Healthy Employees

Although humorists and perhaps realists sometimes proclaim that the typical family firm goes from shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations, the ability of more than a sixth of family businesses to survive into the third generation suggests that companies owned and operated by family members have the entrepreneurial potential and ethical values to be sustainable over decades. In fact, many family firms reflect multiple generations of ownership; extreme examples include Houshi Ryokan, a traditional Japanese inn that traces its origins to the year 717 and that has been operated by the same family for 46 generations (Getaway Fact Sheets, 2006; History of Houshi, 2012), and Chateau de Goulaine of