Growth ambitions and succession solutions in family businesses

The purpose of this paper is to establish whether succession problems in family businesses contribute to more modest growth aspirations compared to family businesses where succession solutions are gained. It aims to focus especially on transition countries, where studies on this topic are very rare.

The main data source for the study was a telephone survey of 350 small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in Slovenia. To obtain population estimates, 95 percent confidence intervals were calculated. To test the differences in the case of two independent samples, the t‐test and χ²‐test were used. The general criterion for accepting the hypothesis that differences exist was the statistical signification at the 5 percent level (p< 0.05; two‐tailed).

The research shows that a high proportion of family enterprises in Slovenia are going to face the problem of succession in the near future. Research results also suggest that anticipation of an increase in the number of new jobs is higher, on average, among entrepreneurs in family enterprises that have gained succession solutions, compared to those that have not.

It is very important for transition countries to continue with research and to regularly start collecting data on succession and start raising the awareness of family business owners about the importance of managers preparing succession on time. An extension of the research is also to establish whether, and to what extent, growth aspirations turn into the actual growth of ventures.

This is one of the first researches on the impact of unsolved succession problems on entrepreneurs' ambitions to grow their business in transition countries in general, with particular focus on the case of Slovenia.