Selection of Successors to Family Businesses in Taiwan: Case Study on Small and Medium Enterprises

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to explore the methods which small and medium-sized family businesses in Taiwan adopt for selecting successors, the characteristics of successors, and the suitability of children's or professional managers' succession to family businesses. The qualitative interview was adopted to establish the contents of the survey, and 400 questionnaires were distributed to the original owners (bosses) of small and medium-sized family businesses, second generation successors (children), professional managers, graduate students in the EMBA program, and cadre members of trade associations. A total of 349 valid questionnaires were retrieved (87.25%). The grey relational analysis (GRA) was adopted as the statistical method of the study. According to the results of the study, the most common method for training successors was reserve cadre; the selection of successors was mainly based on the opinions of the bosses or chairmen; personal morality weighed heavily in the characteristics of successors; and professional managers' succession improved the overall business performance.