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The purpose of this study is to shed some light on an important phenomenon – how and why intra-family succession may change if millennial cohorts are considered as successors. Specifically, it aims to explore the superordinate themes that support the success of intra-family succession from perspective of two different cohort successors (X and millennial).

An interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was adopted for detailed structural analysis of in-depth interview as it aims to explore meaning of participants' experiences. A total of ten individuals participated in the study.

Seventeen superordinate themes emerged from participants' personal statements and experiences. The themes are grouped into four aspects: namely, characteristics of predecessor and successor, succession process, firm and family and succession output. These aspects were found to be different between X and millennial cohort successors. They then form an empirical model of intra-family succession from both perspectives.

This study enriches the theory of family firm by considering generational effect of successors on intra-family succession.

As millennial cohort successors prefer to go directly into business (experiential learning) and are driven by non-material motives (passion-driven), predecessors are expected to utilize them in the process of nurturing and development.

This study considers the role of generation cohort in supporting the success of intra-family succession especially in relation to the characteristics of millennial cohort successors that have been shown to differ from that of X cohort.

Although succession planning can be important for the continuity of family firms, not all family business have the opportunity to engage in this planning. Sometimes, these organizations face crisis events that may trigger an intra-family succession. However, what happens when there is an unplanned succession? Are family businesses doomed to fail? This project aims to explore unplanned successions that are triggered by crisis and the impact that this can have on post-succession financial performance. The authors also examine the moderating role of successor characteristics (i.e. education and previous work experience) on this relationship.

The ideas were tested using data from 151 publicly listed family firms in China.

The findings indicate that having a crisis driven intra-family succession does not always result in lower post-succession performance. It is only successions that are triggered by market crises that negatively impact financial performance after the unplanned succession. In these instances, the education and previous experience of the successor moderate the negative relationship between market crisis succession and financial performance such that having more experience and a college education diminishes these negative effects on performance.

The results point to the importance of the preparation of the next generation in helping family firms navigate unplanned successions. The findings indicate that education and previous work experience of the successor can help a family firm manage a crisis.

This study continues to build the understanding about unplanned successions and the important role that successor preparation can have for the success of the family firm.

This study explores the impact of family ownership and management on exploitative and exploratory outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) in family businesses in emerging economies, as well as the moderating effects of intra-family successions and founder CEOs.

The authors empirically tested the hypotheses based on the data of Chinese listed manufacturing family enterprises from 2009 to 2018.

Family ownership does not significantly reduce exploitative OFDI but significantly increases exploratory OFDI. When family offspring have succession intentions, these relationships are strengthened. Additionally, family management is negatively associated with exploitative OFDI and positively associated with exploratory OFDI. Founder CEOs have a positive moderating effect on the relationship between family management and exploitative and exploratory OFDI.

This study is the first attempt to introduce exploitative and exploratory OFDI into the internationalization of family enterprises. The research goes beyond internationalization as a single concept and provides new evidence to solve the controversy about how family involvement affects family firms’ internationalization. On the other hand, the authors respond to the call to understand the impact of family heterogeneity on internationalization by systematically examining the influence of four important family heterogeneity characteristics on family firms’ OFDI choice.

While many studies in family business research focus on mono-causal impacts of succession, the purpose of this paper is to employ a systemic approach to analyze dynamic effects of intra-family succession on multiple business areas in family-run companies.

A system analysis using a participatory approach was conducted for a reference family-run company operating in the horticultural retail sector in Germany. The Vester Sensitivity Model, supplemented with principles from system thinking was used to identify key variables related to intra-family succession.

Expert input and analysis of variable co-occurrence revealed key variables associated with succession such as “strategic planning,” “productivity” and “financial flexibility.” Dynamic interactions among various business areas were identified by simulating interventions in succession trajectories. In particular, key variables such as “conflicts between family and work” and “organizational climate” turned out to be highly sensitive to changes during a succession process.

The concept and design of this system analysis tool will allow practitioners such as company managers and business consultants to better understand complex interrelations within companies and provide additional guidance with regard to critical events like business transfer.

The present study uses system thinking to analyze succession and its dynamic and time-lagged impacts on affected business areas in family-run companies for the first time. Repeated application of the systemic approach presented here to real-world business cases will gradually improve the tool and the quality of information it provides.

This research study focusses on the succession challenges in small-medium outboard marine businesses of Malaysian Chinese family ownership. The founder-owners face challenges in convincing the next-generation members to establish their careers within the family business and to ensure successions are in place to safeguard the family's wealth. A gap exists in the research literatures concerning such family business owners; and their experiences would provide valuable information to other Malaysian Chinese family businesses planning to start the succession journey.

An exploratory case study methodology to research five Malaysian Chinese family businesses cases in Klang Valley, Selangor, Malaysia, is used in this study. The primary qualitative data were obtained through in-depth, semi-structured interviews and observations. The research data lead to the identification of the following themes: generational change affects the survival of small-medium Malaysian Chinese family-owned businesses; the founder-owners' intention and desire for business to pass to the next generation give rise to the imperative of succession; the founder-owners' motive and goals, family context and the business nature would determine a large part to how the succession plans are carried out and the upbringing, expectation and obligations would determine how the next generations of children would view the prospect of taking over the family business. From this, a succession model that detailed an inclusive approach to succession planning process between the two generations is established.

A small purposive sample is included, and it is recommended that a larger and more diverse sample be collected in future studies. This study follows a nuclear family structure of parents and children. If more Chinese family businesses are selected based on a wider set of family members such as uncles and cousins, the findings may differ.

This research study could also facilitate other Malaysian family businesses to rethink and refocus on the importance of undertaking an inclusive approach to succession planning and also help potential next-generation successors in understanding and working towards attaining the qualities that family firms look for in future leaders.

The researcher summarizes the study findings into a management succession model. An inclusive succession approach is needed to overcome these challenges and would enable sustainability, continuity and longevity of the family business. This would help the family business to understand that succession is not a single event but a process that needs to be planned together with the next-generation family members over a certain period of time.

The purpose of this study is to identify the key determinants which inhibit intra-family business succession. The study also explores the effects these determinants have on preventing intra-family business succession. Finally, the study explores the probability that intra-family business succession does not take place based upon the effects of the identified determinants.

A total of 250 surveys were mailed to family business owners across the United States, yielding 68 usable responses (27.2% response rate). Factor analysis was used to determine the most influential factors which inhibit intra-family business succession, and Bayesian Networks were constructed to determine the probability that intra-family business succession does not occur based on these factors.

The study results indicate that there are four key constructs comprised of 23 variables which have the most influence on deterring intra-family business successions. The results also suggest managerial actions that can be taken to improve the probability of intra-family business succession.

A possible research limitation is that the survey respondents may not represent the entire cross-section of family-owned business in the United States. Additionally, the impact of company size, age, industry, and other demographic factors were not considered in the analysis of results. Finally, the selection of the key determinants was made based upon the highest value extracted from the principle components analysis. Combining these variables with other relatively high values may lead to different results.

The empirical findings contained in this study demonstrate that process, context, and governance factors have the largest effect on increasing the probability that intra-family succession does not take place. Additionally, the results of this study suggest several managerial actions that can be taken to improve the probability of intra-family business succession. Thus, the results of this study can be used by practitioners to assist them in intra-family business successions. The results can also be used by researchers as a basis for conducting additional empirical studies in this area.

The purpose of this paper is to compare first‐, second‐, and third‐generation family business managerial characteristics and practices in a combined sample from six countries (Croatia, Egypt, France, India, Kuwait, and the USA) with significant differences in cultures, economies, levels of entrepreneurial activity, and family business demographics.

The design was survey research with a sample of 593 businesses from six countries. To compare differences between the three generations, analysis of covariance was run for the 11 dependent variables, followed by post hoc Tukey honestly significant difference multiple comparisons tests to determine which of the three generations were significantly different.

As family businesses move from first to second to third generation, some managerial characteristics and practices remain the same while others change. Furthermore, only minor generational differences between the various countries were found, thus supporting commonality of family businesses in spite of the differing cultural, economic, and demographic variations.

The results lead to an improvement in our understanding of entrepreneurial behavior and managerial characteristics and practices between generations of family business in six very diverse economic and cultural settings.

Prior family business research has rarely focused specifically on comparisons of first‐, second‐, and third‐generation firms. No prior research combined family firm data from different countries. The analyses are more complex and mixed than the methodologies used in most of the limited previous research, raising questions and indicating a need for further research.

This paper investigates the impact of family influence measured by the F-PEC scale on private enterprise (both family firms and lone founders) leadership succession strategy.

The research dataset is comprised of 390 private enterprises whose head offices were situated in the voivodeships of Lower Silesia and Wielkopolska in Poland. The authors collected data through CAPI (computer-assisted personal interviewing) method, as well as through comprehensive, structured interviews with company owners. Data were analysed using hierarchical logistic regression for each type of succession strategy.

The results suggest that increased family influence does not necessarily lead to intra-family leadership succession in private enterprises. Importantly, a range of findings contradicted authors' predictions. The relationship between the overall F-PEC scale values signifying the multi-faceted family influence over the business and the choice of internal successor was weakly negative for the total sample; also, the higher the overlap between family and business values and the higher the commitment to family business, as evidenced by the Culture subscale, the lower was the occurrence of intra-family successor choice in the population of lone founders. The Culture subscale also increased the prevalence of lack of succession planning in the sample of lone founders.

While several studies suggests that family firms may be more prone to choose an intra-family succession scenario, it remains unclear how lower levels of business and succession experience, may influence the successor choice. Indeed, some studies suggest that a strong family influence over a business, may stimulate family firms to choose a family outsider as a business leader. Therefore, the key contribution of this study is contextualizing the response to an ongoing succession debate. This study investigates the strategic choices of companies in the first generation of ownership operating in Poland, which serves as an example of a post-transition economy. While the characteristics of this economic environment may be unique, the authors discuss how the surprising findings may add to the understanding of the general succession processes present in private enterprises.

Literature considers the succession process to be successful when both the continuity of the business and harmony within the family are preserved. This study empirically investigates intra-family dynamics with regard to daughters as potential successors in family businesses.

The study takes place in South Africa where family businesses represent a significant amount of all listed businesses on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. A structured survey instrument is used to collect primary data from family businesses in South Africa. The study hypotheses are statistically tested using regression analyses.

Results highlight the importance of the business context (BC), intra-family cohesion (IFC), intra-family adaptability (IFA) as well as the parent-daughter relationship (PDR) in successful daughter succession planning (SP). An important insight which emerges from the findings is the extent to which a harmonious business environment is conducive in accommodating the daughter as a successor to the business.

Family business owners need to be aware of the often conflicting pressures that daughters face as potential successors. Evidence-based and fit for purpose to the South African family BC processes and directives must be formulated that guide the implementation of SP. The provision of training specifically focused on gender bias issues and women empowerment programmes in family business is recommended.

Investigating theoretical and practical problems related to daughters in SP in South Africa is important considering that firms in African countries in general tend to be poorly managed.

The purpose of this study was to measure the innovative performance of a managed and owned mainland Chinese family business. The objective of the study was to assist an inheritor and/or successor of a family business and to find management problems in innovative activity.

To improve the innovative technical efficiency (TE) of the business, the study offers methods that enhance the allocation of resources to provide outcomes that improve the core competitiveness of the business and realize the sustainable development of the business. Innovation performance is a well-organized and efficient way of turning innovation input into innovation output. Human input, research and development expenditures measure innovation input. Patent output and other outputs, which include total labor productivity and asset liability ratios, measure innovation output. To complete the study’s task, the innovative performance of 46 Chinese listed family run and owned businesses were evaluated based on the data envelopment analysis and the Banker, Charnes and Cooper model.

The results of the study show that the overall TE of innovation in a Chinese family run and owned business is low and that the returns to scale of most such businesses is decreasing, and furthermore, that the overall innovation performance of is low.

The implications from the study further suggest that for business efficiency and increased profit a beneficiary of a Chinese family-owned business should optimize the firm’s size and resource allocation.