To the roots of Italian family SME’s sustainable values: the “closeness” to the territory

The study focuses on the importance of entrepreneurial and family values as well as the relationship with the local context within which the family businesses are profoundly rooted. Using a qualitative approach, the study of family SMEs belonging to the Marche region, Italian territory “cradle” of the small-sized company and craft traditions, permits identifying the “roots” of good entrepreneurial practices of stakeholder engagement and to trace the features of a territorial model of socially-responsible and sustainability orientation based on excellent examples of “convivial” family businesses strongly embedded in their territories.