Enterprising families and distinctive familiness. Family business and transgenerational value creation in Tuscany

The research aims to investigate the competencies of the family group members of an enterprising firm. Focused on family group-owned and -managed firms, the paper provides a comparison between different types of family firms (enterprising and non-enterprising) within a specific context, that is the textile/clothing district of Prato (Tuscany, Italy). Through a transgenerational resource assessment and in-depth interviews to the second and third-generation family group members of a business categorized as an enterprising firm, the research aims to point out a set of competencies that family members are endowed with enabling the firm to achieve value creation over time. A single case, Albini & Pitigliani, a freight forwarding and logistics provider, has been chosen to fill the theoretical category of enterprising families, so to offer opportunities for unusual research access. The case represents, in fact, an extreme exemplar to explore a significant, but rare and under-investigated, phenomenon. The findings highlight that success is considered by the family ownership group a multidimensional construct, including both wealth and non-economic objectives achievement. Transgenerational success is deeply linked to the synergistic interaction among the business, the family and the family members in accordance with the “distinctive familiness” paradigm. Entrepreneurial personal competencies of the family ownership members result to be strictly mingled with the familial culture and values which widely pervade the business approach. Instead of preventing success, the familial dimension of the organization is purposely used as a major source of competitive advantage which enhances the corporate image and guarantees reliability of business relationships.