The Legacy of the Past in Business Families of Northern Italy

This chapter illustrates some fundamental elements that may explain the origin of the great number of family business in the area of Brianza in the region of Lombardy (Italy). Reher's concepts of strong family ties, catholic social activism and land tenure constitute the terrain in which families were able to turn the working skill of their members into economic capital. Yet, the legacy with this recent past is continuously revisited in contemporary family businesses in Lombardy to reproduce a public imagery of themselves that rather emphasizes motivations and behaviours profoundly rooted in the realm of the natural world, such as in the expressions 'it's in our blood' or 'it's in our DNA'. Through these biological metaphors, they communicate an important message regarding their own culture to themselves as well as to their interlocutors.