FAMILY FIRM SUCCESSION PLANS OF STUDENTS IN THE VISEGRAD COUNTRIES

Abstract

The recognition of the social and economic role of entrepreneurship has brought to the fore the question of what influences entrepreneurial ideas and how entrepreneurship can be encouraged. One possible route to an entrepreneurial career is to take over the family business. This article focuses on the pre-succession period and examines the factors determining students’ decisions to take over the family business, using the sample of Visegrad countries from the 2018 GUESSS (Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students’ Survey) database. Our results show that some factors influencing the family business’s succession are company-specific (such as the size and performance of the company). Others depend on the students’ commitment (ownership, involvement in the work) and individual characteristics (attitudes, self-efficacy) and are also determined by the perception of the student’s environment about the succession.