Intergenerational knowledge sharing in family firms: Case-based evidence from the New Zealand wine industry

Abstract

This paper examines intergenerational knowledge sharing within family firms in traditional industries. We position our analysis against the background of the knowledge-based view of the firm and utilize knowledge creation theory and perspectives on knowledge sharing behavior to analyse how knowledge is shared in an organization. We employ a multiple case study approach and use the New Zealand wine industry as the context of our analysis. Our study extends family business and knowledge sharing literature by challenging traditional views of incumbent-successor relationships. We reason that family business literature is sympathetic to the senior generation nurturing the next generation while leaving a gap in our understanding of how the next generation contributes knowledge to the firm. We suggest that the knowledge bases of the senior and next generation are different in terms of how they are generated and the relative weight of tacit and explicit knowledge they contain. We also argue that knowledge sharing in family firms is bidirectional leading to innovative outcomes and change.

When the Former CEO Stays on Board: The Role of the Predecessor’s Board Retention for Product Innovation in Family Firms

“…This finding might be informative to literature studying the willingness and ability of family firm owner‐managers to innovate (e.g., Chrisman et al, ) as it suggests that in case of family successions, successors might enjoy higher perceived ability to introduce changes to the product and service portfolio. In summary, our results thus extend the emerging stream of research on intergenerational succession and family firm (product) innovation (e.g., Chirico and Salvato, ; Hauck and Prügl, ; Kraiczy et al, ; Woodfield and Husted, ) by revealing how and under which conditions the predecessor’s board retention influences product innovation in family firms.…”

“…Recently, scholars have started to devote their attention to the role of CEO succession in family firms for (product) innovation (Cabrera‐Suárez, García‐Almeida, and De Saá‐Pérez, ; Hauck and Prügl, ; Kraiczy et al, ; Woodfield and Husted, ). These studies indicate that CEO succession provides a “catalyst for change” (Kotlar and De Massis, , p. 29) and thus stimulates product innovation as successors tend to be more open toward new ideas and bring new knowledge to the family firm (Handler, ; Kraiczy et al, ; Salvato, ; Woodfield and Husted, ).…”

“…Recently, scholars have started to devote their attention to the role of CEO succession in family firms for (product) innovation (Cabrera‐Suárez, García‐Almeida, and De Saá‐Pérez, ; Hauck and Prügl, ; Kraiczy et al, ; Woodfield and Husted, ). These studies indicate that CEO succession provides a “catalyst for change” (Kotlar and De Massis, , p. 29) and thus stimulates product innovation as successors tend to be more open toward new ideas and bring new knowledge to the family firm (Handler, ; Kraiczy et al, ; Salvato, ; Woodfield and Husted, ). In particular, next‐generation CEOs might be especially willing to introduce novel products as they aim to demonstrate their efficacy and worthiness, which they can particularly accomplish by initiating strategic change (Quigley and Hambrick, ) and product innovations (Le Breton‐Miller, Miller, and Steier, ; Woodfield and Husted, ).…”

The role of management accounting in family business succession

“…We selected this case study because Grotta del Sole is a typical family firm, based in the Campania region (south of Italy), which operates in one of the most relevant Italian industrial sectors: the wine industry. Even though winemaking is a traditional industry sector, it has had a wide and global renaissance, due to advances in science and technology which have largely improved the traditionally practice-based industry, at the same time increasing knowledge through formal education (Johnson and Robinson, 2007;Woodfield and Husted, 2017).…”

“…As far as the new management accounting practices became a shared "language" within the firm, family and non-family managers were provided with a set of categories that made sense of activities, at the same time improving communication and knowledge transfer (Roberts and Scapens, 1985). Furthermore, according to Woodfield and Husted (2017), this means that knowledge sharing in family firms leads to innovative outcomes and change.…”