Family Business Innovativeness: A Tool for Successful Succession?
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Technická Univerzita v Liberci
Technical university of Liberec, Czech Republic
Technical university of Liberec, Czech Republic
Abstract
Family businesses are founded with a vision of long-term sustainability and longevity over generations. Therefore, succession in a family business is an important prerequisite for achieving this goal, representing one of the greatest challenges for contemporary family businesses. We are now in an era in which the millennial generation, which is known for their interest in innovation and technology, is among the potential successors. However, the relationship between family business innovation as a potential motivating factor and the next generation’s intention to take over the family business has not been sufficiently investigated. This study examines the relationship between family businesses’ innovativeness and potential successors’ intention to take over the family business. On a sample of 18,000 responses from university students in the role of a potential successor to a family business, we demonstrate a positive correlation between the intention to take over a family business and the innovativeness of that business. Although the Cramér’s V coefficient indicates weak association, it is evident that the relative number of potential successors of family businesses increases with a higher rating of innovativeness. We also show that this trend has not changed over the last five years. The innovativeness of the family business plays an important role in the next generation's decision whether to continue with the business and ensure the longevity of the family business over generations. Our findings may therefore be relevant for owners of family businesses in addressing potential succession issues.
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Subject(s)
family firms, succession intention, potential successor, innovation, millennials
Citation
ISSN
ISBN
978-80-7494-627-1