Conclusion: exploring transgenerational entrepreneurship: implications and conclusions

Transgenerational entrepreneurship, defined by Habbershon et al. (2010: 1) as the ‘processes through which a family uses and develops entrepreneurial mindsets and family influenced capabilities to create new streams of entrepreneurial, financial and social value across generations’ has previously been explored in the context of Europe (Nordqvist and Zellweger, 2010), Latin America (Nordqvist et al., 2011) and the Asia Pacific (Au et al., 2011). Building on this foundational work, this book set out to explore one specific aspect within the transgenerational entrepreneurship framework: the role of intangible resources in family enterprises around the world. These strategic firm resources enable the creation of sustainable value across generations of leaders, products or services, and economic and social life cycles. Scholars contend these resources are valuable, rare, inimitable and non-substitutable, thereby significant for sustained organizational competitive advantages (for example, Barney, 1991). Each chapter in this book examines how enterprising families utilize their unique family-influenced intangible resources to create economic and non-economic value across generations.