Abstract
We theorize and empirically confirm the positive influence of an advisor’s tertius iungens behavior on individual- and firm-level succession-related factors. Furthermore, we explore the moderating influence of two central advisor characteristics, namely, their type and process involvement. We find that the relationship between an advisor’s tertius iungens behavior and an incumbent’s and a successor’s satisfaction with the advisor tends to be stronger when the advisor is of formal (versus informal) nature. Furthermore, the relationship between an advisor’s tertius iungens behavior and firm performance is stronger when the advisor is involved in the full succession process, compared to being only involved in parts of it. Our study thus contributes to the literature on advising and family-owned SME succession by introducing the tertius iungens concept as a crucial advisor behavior and by highlighting how important advisor characteristics support the satisfaction with the advisor and post-succession firm performance.
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Notes
The tertius iungens behavior is defined as the behavior of the “third who joins” in an existing group (here, for example, the incumbent and successor). In contrast to the tertius gaudens, where the third party takes advantage of the disconnection among group members, the tertius iungens aims to connect group members with one another to increase the whole network’s advantages and not just “the third’s” advantage (Obstfeld 2005).
The data collection took place from September to November, with some late responses coming in December.
Several of the double respondents indicated different most trusted advisors (i.e., each of them relied on a different trusted advisor). Therefore, we decided to keep all 18 response pairs in our main analyses.
For the 18 firms with answers from both the incumbent and the successor, we analyzed whether the subjective assessments of post-succession performance were consistent. A comparison between incumbents and successors revealed that there is no significant mean difference (p > 0.5).
For both dependent variables, we also specified regression models where we included both corresponding moderators (main terms and related interaction terms) at the same time. The results remained very stable.
Because we have 18 firms with responses from both the incumbent and the successor (see above), we assessed the robustness and validity of our findings with two separate corresponding tests. First, we excluded all the 18 corresponding incumbents and re-estimated all our regression models (N = 84); second, we did the same while excluding all the 18 corresponding successors (N = 84 as well). In both scenarios, our findings remained very stable. Tertius iungens behavior remained significant in all corresponding models, advisor type (formal vs. informal) remained marginally significant in model 4, and process involvement (full vs. partial) remained significant in model 12.
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Bertschi-Michel, A., Sieger, P. & Kammerlander, N. Succession in family-owned SMEs: the impact of advisors. Small Bus Econ 56, 1531–1551 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-019-00266-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-019-00266-2