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Knowledge transfer in family business successions: Implications of knowledge types and transaction atmospheres

Britta Boyd (Department for Border Region Studies, University of Southern Denmark, Sønderborg, Denmark)
Susanne Royer (International Institute of Management, University of Flensburg, Flensburg, Germany)
Rong Pei (School of Management and Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China)
Xiaolei Zhang (School of Management and Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China)

Journal of Family Business Management

ISSN: 2043-6238

Article publication date: 13 April 2015

2085

Abstract

Purpose

Knowledge often is the fundament for strategic competitive advantage. Thus, it is highly relevant to understand better how knowledge is transferred from one generation to the next in family businesses. The purpose of this paper is to link the competitive advantage realisation in family businesses to the success of transferring strategically valuable knowledge in different business environments to the next generation.

Design/methodology/approach

Building on the contingency model of family business succession (Royer et al., 2008) knowledge transfer in family businesses from different cultures is investigated in this paper. From a resource-oriented and transaction cost inspired perspective two family businesses with a similar industry background from China and Europe are compared regarding knowledge transfer in the context of family firm succession taking into account the respective transaction atmosphere.

Findings

Different successions for two long-lived family firms are illustrated in a systematic fashion: based on the theoretical elements suggested both cases are described to get insights into the usefulness of the theoretical reasoning developed. On the basis of these, the cases are compared with each other and conclusions for both cases are drawn. Implications for theory and practice as well as avenues for future research are sketched.

Originality/value

The focus of the current study is to gain more insight into long-lived family businesses by comparing two cases over a period of more than 200 years with regard to strategically relevant resources as well as the underlying transaction atmospheres. Implications for family firms depending on the resource types and transaction atmosphere are discussed.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the HBK Dethleffsen family business for giving the access to firm-documents and knowledge about their company. The authors would like to thank the Kang’s Family Culture Seminar and its President Kang Xiantang, who showed great hospitality and support when the research team stayed near the Kang’s manor for almost a week. Second, the authors thank Professor Xinxin Wu of Peking University and Professor Rongping Kang (President of Chinese Research Centre of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences) for offering a lot of help with this case study.

Citation

Boyd, B., Royer, S., Pei, R. and Zhang, X. (2015), "Knowledge transfer in family business successions: Implications of knowledge types and transaction atmospheres", Journal of Family Business Management, Vol. 5 No. 1, pp. 17-37. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFBM-05-2014-0009

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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