Abstract

This case is built around a conversation with three members of the Swedish Wallenberg family – a key player in Swedish and European business life for many years. Through five generations, the Wallenberg family have worked to build and maintain long-term business sustainability and innovation through financial vigilance, patience and purposeful business development. This case illustrates how these long-standing family values and traditions have been used as a platform to support enterprise and build sustainable growth and global expansion for companies of Swedish origin. Moreover, this long-term perspective to sustainable business activity has been driven through a family tradition of working for the advancement of Sweden and the progression of Swedish society through a vision of long-term responsible and sustainable ownership. The case gives concrete examples of how the Wallenberg family has achieved this through their family foundations support to various research and cultural initiatives.