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Succession in family firms from a multistaged perspective

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Abstract

Succession in family-owned businesses has been revealed to be a multi-staged phenomenon with trigger events distinguishing one stage from the other. Our aim is to apply change management theory to this process to improve our understanding and to identify the key factors that should be taken into account when implementing it. To achieve this goal, we will review the existing literature about organizational change and will adapt it to succession in family firms. We will end with a case study, concluding that a good succession process is not the one which avoids conflict, but the one which successfully manages it.

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Notes

  1. This theory states that the probability that a behavior will occur is dependent on the intention of an individual to engage in that behavior (Ajzen and Fishbein 1980; Ajzen 1987). The intention will depend on the individual’s attitudes (Krueger and Carsrud 1993) which include the perceived desirability of the outcomes to the initiator, the acceptability of the outcomes according to the social norms of a reference group, and the perception that the behavior might lead to the desired outcomes.

  2. It is a fictitious name to preserve the anonymity of the company.

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Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the Cátedra de Empresa Familiar (Chair of Family Firms) from the Universitat de València (Spain) and most specially its director Dr. Tomás González for his support with this research.

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  1. Universitat de València, Valencia, Spain

    Manuela Pardo-del-Val

  2. Facultad de Economía, Avda. Los Naranjos, s/n, 46022, Valencia, Spain

    Manuela Pardo-del-Val

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  1. Manuela Pardo-del-Val
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Correspondence to Manuela Pardo-del-Val.

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Pardo-del-Val, M. Succession in family firms from a multistaged perspective. Int Entrep Manag J 5, 165–179 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11365-008-0092-1

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