Walking in Parents’ Shoes? Factors Behind Students’ Succession Intentions in Family Firms

Abstract

Succession is one of the crucial processes in family businesses, enabling them to last for generations. On the one hand, more and more businesses will face a situation to choose their successors. But on the other hand, the succession intention among the young potential successors has decreased. Building particularly on the imprinting, human capital and agency theories in the context of entrepreneurship (in general) and family business (in particular), our paper aims to fill the gap between the increasing need for new successors and their decreasing interest in taking over the family business. Our main research question is: How do sex, birth order, working experience and ownership stake in parents’ businesses influence the succession intention in family businesses? In addressing this research question, we rely on GUESSS data from 2021, and our sample consists of Slovak students who consider their parents’ business as a family business (n = 575). We conclude that students’ involvement in parents’ businesses due to working experience and ownership stake significantly increases their succession intention. Further, we find that sons want to become successors more likely than daughters. Finally, the birth order has no impact on succession intention. Based on these conclusions, we develop implications for further research and family business practice.