Scientific and managerial importance of the study

As was noted in the methodological part of the thesis, the author did not seek to produce any generalizations. It does not represent a valuable goal in the context of the present research, because the research deals with the notion of organizational culture. Organizational culture is something an organization is as a result of continuous social enactment. It is especially true in the case of the family business that lives for 163 years already. In line with the interpretivist approach, the author argues that organizational culture is not just a variable that can be changed, manipulated, bent to a will or copied by another party that wants to achieve the desirable out-come. It is highly difficult, if ever possible, to isolate organizational culture from the organiza-tion, partly or as a whole, and apply it to another organization. The case company's sacred

values, underlying assumptions and cultural artifacts are interconnected. Throughout the re-search process it was shown how one sacred value or another show up in an unexpected place together and work in synergy, supported by underlying assumptions and represented in cultural artifacts. For example, the new facility of the case company, representing a new cultural artifact of the company, was born out of the fact that Mr. Nylund acted on the five sacred values, namely, «long-term thinking», «open-mindedness», «community approach», «connection to lo-cal nature» and «balance of tradition and innovation», which were supported by the «respect for the family business history» and «the will for continuation» underlying assumptions. Some-times it is hard to see where influence of one sacred value ends and influence of another sacred value begins, or where one underlying assumption is layered onto the other. Organizational culture elements work in synergy, and there is a possibility that «removing» one or two elements can collapse the whole structure, like a house of cards. There is also a possibility that using only one or two elements will not bring desired outcome in form of the company's continued sur-vival. Therefore, generalizability of research findings, capturing the rich complexity of organi-zational culture is highly questionable.

Nevertheless, from the point of view of theoretical contribution, the research findings provide new valuable insights on the family business longevity approached from cultural perspective, which were summarized in the present chapter. The contribution is especially valuable in the light of the work of Koiranen (2002), who analyzed organizational values of 27 Finnish family companies over 100 years of age that contributed to their survival. The author of the mentioned study used a polar opposite approach from the one utilized by the author of the thesis, having analyzed a number of Finnish long-living family companies. Koiranen (2002) found out that

«honesty», «credibility», «obeying the law», «quality» and «industriousness» were highly rated by Finnish family business members. The author of the present work truly hopes that he man-aged to show that in cultural research, it is not appropriate to just take words of organizational members for granted, for several reasons. First, multiple data sources should be used. Second, organizational members themselves are not explicitly aware of the ways by which organiza-tional culture and its elements guide or support their decisions, and only meticulously designed questions probing specific respondent from different points of view can provide high-quality data. Third, there is little point to learn that «honesty» is an organizational value of a company, even if it really is - one has to go deeper and understand how it works, how it shows itself in real life, and, in the end, what it really means. To add to the point, it is also not appropriate to make generalizations in cultural research and state that «honesty» is an organizational value

shared by a number of long-living companies. Each company is unique, and «honesty», as an organizational value, can imply completely different things in different organizations. Moreo-ver, «honesty», as organizational value, can be useless or damaging without some other organ-izational value in place, because cultural elements work in synergy. Yet, in the end, broad over-view of the long-living Finnish family business research field, approached from cultural per-spective, achieved by mostly quantitative means by Koiranen (2002), combined with focused view applied to the same research area, achieved by appropriate qualitative means by the author of the thesis, presents a more complete picture of the research field.

Strong family business organizational culture built around unique sacred values is the source of strategic competitive advantage of the case company. Nurturing family business organiza-tional culture and gaining benefit from it is an obligation owed to the legacy of the family business founder (Denison et al. 2004, 69). From managerial point of view, it may seem tempt-ing for another company to try to imitate successful culture of the long-livtempt-ing case company by trying to follow its sacred values. Yet, it should be understood that it is a futile task. The reasons were explained numerous times throughout the thesis, reiterated above and do not require fur-ther restatement. The author will only allow himself a metaphor. Just like it is hard for one person to imitate another person «down to his or her values», it is nearly impossible for a com-pany to imitate another comcom-pany's organizational culture or its elements, even if it would truly believe in them and consistently behave in accordance to them (O'Reilly III & Pfeffer 2000, 237).

Nevertheless, while it is arguably impossible for a company in the middle of its lifecycle to imitate organizational culture of another company or its elements, it is possible for future family business founders to use the research findings in order to figure out what organizational culture they would like to nurture and what values they would want to instill in their companies. Clegg et al. (2011, 58) state that «understanding values is the fundamental attribute for managing today», and every new piece of puzzle, like the present research, contributes to the understand-ing. The findings of the thesis are not cultural guidelines nor rules that every newly established family business should follow to achieve longevity. The findings only represent best cultural practice of one successful long-living family business. It is up to each and every family business founder to choose what is right and what fits for his or her business on the basis of provided information (Ward 2004, xi). Returning to metaphorical expression once again, De Geus (see Senge 2002, x-xi) views a company as a living being with inherent strive for survival. Just like

a newborn baby, a newborn company has its whole life ahead of it, and any kind of organiza-tional culture can be created in it, with any kind of values instilled in it. The case company's organizational culture can serve as an example for newly created family business ventures, just like an iconic figure can be an example for kids who strive to achieve something grand in their lives. Achieving an impressive organizational longevity is, unquestionably, a grand goal for any newly created family business.