Successful generational change in family business
Abstract
Purpose
Family businesses (FBs) share common characteristics and face common problems, among which the generational change is recognized to be the most relevant one. During recent years, there has been a growing interest in the study of FBs. Notwithstanding, little attention has been paid to succession planning, and only few studies tried to identify which factors influence its success. The aim of this paper is to identify which factors may influence the succession process.
Design/methodology/approach
First a literature review is conducted, aiming to identify the main phases of a succession process and the factors that are relevant for its planning and management. Then, ten case studies of Italian FBs are analyzed.
Findings
The result is the development of a research framework and the identification of the factors that impact on the generational change's success. Moreover, best practices that emerge from the case studies are presented.
Research limitations/implications
The main limitation refers to the case study based research that on one hand provides empirical evidence of theoretical assumptions and to exhaustively examine a problem to be studied, on the other, its results are not suitable to be generalized.
Practical implications
Managers of FBs may understand how to plan and manage successfully the succession process in order to survive the generational change.
Originality/value
The paper adds further elements to the long debate about the theme of succession, trying to better understand the factors of a successful succession.
Keywords
Citation
Bigliardi, B. and Ivo Dormio, A. (2009), "Successful generational change in family business", Measuring Business Excellence, Vol. 13 No. 2, pp. 44-50. https://doi.org/10.1108/13683040910961207
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2009, Emerald Group Publishing Limited