Obstacles and Drivers to digital transformation in German family businesses

German family businesses are frequently characterized by a long tradition and hence may be questioned how they will cope with the ongoing digital transformation. In the lens of an obvious gap between the new opportunities arising from digitalization and the commonly related path dependencies, the objective of this paper is to understand why digital transformation in German family firms could fail even before it has started. This paper addresses this issue by reviewing 15 C-level-manager interviews in family businesses that are exposed to digital transformation processes and differ on their individual progress. This study identifies the main obstacles value, leadership, and culture that might promote or constrain digital transformations of family firms. Consistent with the observations "picking up" the people and taking them along on the firm's future trip may be one of the fundamental management tasks in digital transformation processes, while culture can be seen as a key driver for digital transformation and make family businesses unique in a progressively dynamic and competitive setting. As family businesses typically play an important role in all national economies worldwide, the potential contribution of this paper gets amplified.