The business elite in Finland: a prosopographical study of family firm executives 1762–2010

Abstract

This study presents a prosopographical analysis of the Finnish business elite. The longitudinal panel dataset includes 456 members of family firms from 1762–2010 who have received the honorary title of counsellor in Finland. Counsellor biographies have been written by an economic history association network of 130 historians. Most family firms are no longer elite after the third generation of the family business or the second counsellor generation; therefore, the same core families rarely remain part of the economic elite for more than 100 years.

Keywords::

• business elite
• family business
• prosopography

Notes

1. This study focuses on counsellors with the Finnish honorary titles kauppaneuvos (counsellor of sales and trade), vuorineuvos (counsellor of mining), talousneuvos (counsellor of commerce), maanviljelyneuvos (counsellor of agriculture), and teollisuusneuvos (counsellor of industry).

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Additional information

Notes on contributors

Juha Kansikas

Juha Kansikas is a senior lecturer of entrepreneurship at the Jyväskylä School of Business and Economics, Jyväskylä University, where he completed a doctoral degree in 2004. In 2012, he was a visiting associate professor at the John Molson Business School, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada. His research interests include elite business careers, entrepreneurship and family business.