ABSTRACT – The evolution of family businesses on both a small and large scale has occurred over many centuries and in the face of multiple crises and revolutions. These businesses provide the ultimate and natural experiment for how social and economic norms drive our fundamental behaviors and decisions. The purpose of our research paper is to investigate how social norms and economic norms operate in decision making within the family business setting over time. We organize the literature in the behavioral economics, sociology and family studies fields to clarify the distinctions between those two types of norms, present their characteristics, and the antecedents of their predominance in certain circumstances, while translating their insights to the study of family businesses. We propose a dynamic conceptual model on how those norms operate in the family business and illustrate our propositions by vignettes of actual family businesses. Our paper highlights the heterogeneity of family businesses, contributing to the latest research calls on the topic and triggering reflections in the current times of social and economic upheavals. The relative importance of both economic and social norms is finally discussed to open new avenues of research in the family business field.