Toward a Theory of Family Social Capital in Wealthy Transgenerational Enterprise Families

Abstract

Over generations, decaying family social capital is a primary cause of enterprise wealth loss in enterprise families that share ownership of multiple entities and multiple assets. We answer recent calls to uncover the origins of family social capital by studying seven old, wealthy, and large transgenerational enterprise families. We complement existing research on wealth creation through entrepreneurship by offering a deeper understanding of how family social capital is enhanced in transgenerational enterprise families. Our inductive qualitative study finds that enterprise family social capital appears to be enhanced by family governance, family learning, family identity, and physical grounding.