The value of values: a study of three-generational Italian-Australian family businesses in Victoria

This thesis focuses on the role that family values, business values and individual values play in supporting the continuity of family businesses across three generations. The thesis researches seven family businesses, beginning with the founding generation, which, through the process of migration to Australia in the first half of the 20th century, established family businesses which continue successfully into their third generation. The thesis concentrates on explaining why and how values, such as trust, respect, family unity, and work ethic, become so important, bridging together the first and the second generations, and then the second and third generations, thus creating the fundamental conditions for family and business succession.