Global Family Business Report 2024

From real estate to traditions and values that have been handed down: the legacy in family businesses is complex. However, it is clear that tangible and intangible assets have a significant influence on the continuity of the business across generations. In the Global Family Business Report 2024, enriched with benchmarking data from Germany for international comparison, we have analysed the effects of individual components on sustainable growth and thus continuous competitiveness. It reveals remarkable details - and causal links between long-term thinking and long-term success.

The comprehensive benchmarking report is based on two elements: The STEP Project Global Consortium and KPMG Private Enterprise first analysed the effects of family inheritance on families and their businesses using data collected in 2023 for a survey of 2,683 family business leaders worldwide. After analysing these survey results, the results were discussed in January 2024 with managers, academics and consultants from family businesses in order to evaluate and classify the data.

Key findings at a glance:

• More than three out of four respondents in Germany and worldwide say that they integrate family heritage - whether financial assets, real estate or social obligations - into their family business. More than three out of four respondents also state that they anchor cross-generational entrepreneurship in their family business. This means that entrepreneurial orientation is maintained through the uninterrupted entrepreneurial activities of various family members over several generations.
• Family heritage is not only a decisive factor influencing business development as a whole, but also characterises aspects of sustainability: The more pronounced the heritage, the better the performance in the four categories of community, environment, personnel and suppliers. The environment category carries the most weight for respondents in Germany. Social heritage has a particularly strong impact on environmental and climate protection. It is about traditional social attitudes, values and beliefs.
• The contribution of material heritage tends to have the greatest impact on the financial performance of family businesses. Meanwhile, companies with a particularly strong sense of commitment to the well-being of stakeholders such as employees and suppliers tend to perform better in terms of sustainability. By maintaining existing relationships, whether internally, with suppliers or with customers, family businesses make a valuable contribution to the common good.

German family businesses also show striking differences to foreign companies in the survey: