An entrepreneurial process perspective on succession in family firms
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An entrepreneurial process perspective on succession in family firms Mattias Nordqvist • Karl Wennberg Massimo Bau’ • Karin Hellerstedt
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Accepted: 23 November 2012 / Published online: 20 December 2012 Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2012
Abstract We review and analyze previous literature on succession in family firms from an entrepreneurial process perspective. Through a three-step cluster analysis of 117 published articles on succession in family firms published between 1974 and 2010, we find several themes within which succession can be understood from an entrepreneurial process perspective where both the entry of new owners and exit of old owners are associated with the pursuit of new business opportunities. We identify gaps within each cluster and develop a set of research questions that may guide future research on succession as an entrepreneurial process. Since succession involves implications for individuals, families and firms, we suggest researchers should adopt a multilevel perspective as they seek answers to these research questions. Our review and analysis also underlines the need to focus on ownership transition rather than only management succession, and the importance of carefully defining both succession and family firm.
M. Nordqvist (&) M. Bau’ K. Hellerstedt Jo¨nko¨ping International Business School, PO Box 1026, 551 11 Jo¨nko¨ping, Sweden e-mail: [email protected] K. Wennberg Stockholm School of Economics, Stockholm, Sweden K. Wennberg The Ratio Institute, Stockholm, Sweden
Keywords Succession Ownership transition Family firms Entrepreneurial process Opportunity recognition Literature review JEL Classifications
L21 L 25 L26 M10 M21
1 Introduction While research on entrepreneurship and family firms have explored how individuals start, take over and expand their own firms, we know little about how and why individuals leave their firms to the care of others, and what economic impact this has on entrepreneurs, families and firms (Parker and Van Praag 2012; Ronstadt 1986; Wasserman 2003). DeTienne (2010) claims the entrepreneurial process does not end with new venture creation and that entrepreneurial exits should be acknowledged as a core part of the entrepreneurial process. Similarly, it has been argued that succession in family firms should be considered more from an entrepreneurial process perspective (Habbershon and Pistrui 2002; Nordqvist and Melin 2010). For example, succession can be an important component of both entrepreneurial entry (of new owners) and entrepreneurial exit (of old owners) when the succession (that is, the entry and exit) is associated with the pursuit of new business opportunities. However, the consequences of such a perspective have never been systematically elucidated. In this article we
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seek to draw out the fruitful consequences of filling this theoretical gap by a closer integration of entrepreneurship and family firm research (Aldrich and Cliff 2003; Kellermanns and Eddleston 2006; Salvato et al. 2010; Uhla
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