Relational Competence-Based Knowledge Transfer Within Intrafamily Succession

Abstract

This article discusses the challenges of knowledge management within intrafamily succession against the background of the knowledge-based view. As a knowledge transfer is crucial for a successful business continuation, factors that promote the interpersonal knowledge transfer are identified. Since the quality of the relationship between successor and predecessor is considered a key determinant of knowledge transfer, the role of relational competence in the knowledge transfer process is analyzed. A laboratory experiment ( N = 107) was conducted to test the derived hypotheses. In its conclusion, the article presents the empirically confirmed strong relationship between relational competence and knowledge transfer within intrafamily succession.

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

“…Nonaka and Takeuchi's (1995) SECI (socialization, externalization, combination, integration) model suggests that knowledge is created as a result of interaction between tacit and explicit knowledge. The SECI model has been utilized across numerous disciplines and organization settings (Karim, Razi, & Mohamed, 2012;Lievre & Tang, 2015;Richtnér, Åhlström, & Goffin, 2014;Trigo, 2013), and has been used in developing arguments where knowledge is a central feature (Hatak & Roessl, 2015). For the purpose of this paper we adopt the SECI view that the interaction between tacit and explicit takes place along a continuum and the interaction is a key mechanism for transforming and applying knowledge for organizational ends (Nonaka & von Krogh, 2009).…”

“…1 Several studies engage with issues related to the sharing of the incumbent's knowledge. This knowledge sharing process is often framed as mentoring (Distelberg & Schwarz, 2015;Fiegener, Brown, Prince, & File, 1994), or knowledge accumulation (Chirico, 2008), enabling intra family succession with new family members and/or generations entering into a leadership role in the family firm (Hatak & Roessl, 2015). Other studies focus on differences between knowledge sharing within the family and with employeessharing with even key employees can tend to be significantly more restricted compared to the knowledge sharing taking place between family members (Cunningham, Seaman, & McGuire, 2016).…”

Nonfamily knowledge during family business succession: a cultural understanding

“…In those cases, with lower power-distance the need to 'reach out' to all others in the organisation is made clear. Each of these successors looked to showcase their work ethic to the other employees, seeking some form of acceptance, or even respect (mirroring Hatak and Roessl's (2015) notion of relational competence). In case three, this is perhaps most clearly illustrated: "it is sometimes hard to be the son of the boss, you always find people that think that you got everything just because of your bloodline whereas it is not entirely true.…”

Extending the concept of familiness to relational capability: A Belgian micro-brewery study

“…Firm specific tacit knowledge and information in relation to technology, manufacturing, marketing and distribution (Fairlie and Robb, 2007;Hatak and Roessl, 2015;Irava and Moores, 2010;Lane and Lubatkin, 1998;Stewart, 2003;Stewart and Hitt, 2012) Access and exchange of resources, knowledge, and information in relation to technology, manufacturing, marketing and distribution from diverse horizontal and vertical networks (Aldrich and Zimmer, 1986;Dubini and Aldrich, 1991;Greve and Salaff, 2003;Lechner et al, 2006;Shaw, 2006;Zellweger et al, 2010) Human capital Reputation (brand and family identity and image), experience, informal learning, mentoring and labour (Colli, 2011;Irava and Moores, 2010;Sharma, 2008;Stewart, 2003;Stewart and Hitt, 2012) Family as a source of labour and initial feedback (Anderson et al, 2005;Greve and Salaff, 2003;Zellweger et al, 2010) Financial capital Patient family capital, physical assets, living expenses during start-up (Danes et al, 2009;Irava and Moores, 2010;Stewart, 2003).…”