Looking beyond the Buddenbrooks syndrome: the Salvadori Firm of Trento, 1660s - 1880s

Cinzia Lorandini

Business History, 2015, vol. 57, issue 7, 1005-1019

Abstract: The Buddenbrooks syndrome is evoked by business historians to explain the inability of family firms to survive beyond the third generation. Although this argument highlights a major problem - that of ensuring smooth intergenerational succession - this article's contention is that a more complex interpretative framework is needed in order to explain the longevity of some family businesses. By drawing on evidence concerning a family firm which survived for more than two centuries, this article highlights three interrelated factors of longevity: the strategic response to internal drivers and environmental changes; the transmission of skills and values to the following generations; and the successful intergenerational transfer of family assets. All these factors were based on a flexible definition of both the 'family' and the 'business' which ensured the combination of continuity and change that was necessary for the family firm's long-term survival.

Date: 2015
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2014.993616

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