From transmission to co-creation: Understanding family value composites in multigenerational business families

This study investigates how values are co-created, transformed, and sustained across generations in business families by introducing the concept of family value composites—dynamic configurations of shared values shaped through intergenerational interaction. Challenging the traditional view of values as static assets transmitted top-down, we adopt a processual and dialogical lens to explore how values evolve in lived family-business contexts. Based on 23 interviews across eight Austrian business families and using theory elaboration, we identify four key relational processes—mutual recognition, negotiation, adoption, and reinterpretation—that structure value co-creation. These processes lead to two outcomes: value continuity and value inversion, which together form coherent yet evolving family value composites. Our findings reconceptualize value transmission as dialogical co-creation, highlighting how younger generations engage critically with inherited values, sustaining some while reconfiguring others. The study contributes to family business theory by linking developmental and organizational perspectives and offers practical implications for succession and governance by emphasizing the importance of relational engagement in building enduring, meaningful family legacies. • Family values emerge as co-created relational composites across generations. • Intergenerational engagement involves mutual recognition, negotiation, adoption and reinterpretation. • Family firms amplify the visibility and reflexivity of value formation. • Value continuity and inversion coexist in shaping family identity. • The family enterprise serves as a melting pot for legacy and innovation.