Transmission of family businesses in France

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this research paper is to show to what extent psychological, cultural and behavioural factors can influence on the succession process in the particular case of family‐run businesses?Design/methodology/approachData on 12 directors of family‐run SME were grouped together on the basis of questions derived from the research question. To do this, the authors operated using a principle guided by cross referencing responses, that is, finding the incidence of elements that make it possible to justify substantively the existence of the category and the common existence of these elements within the cases studied.FindingsThe thematic analysis performed made it possible to highlight five main motives for cultural and psychological resistance in former directors: the loss of power and influence, the risk of deconstruction, the loss of professional and social legitimacy, the loss of references and meaning, and the refusal of old age and death.Originality/valueThe results show that transferors search for connections in the aim of identifying common points of anchor, affinities on to which they can project themselves as an element of continuity or an extension of their personality. The paper can in particular note the importance given to cultural proximity and to previous professional relations with the transferor. These criteria, unlike personal factors, are of the interpersonal type and thus deeply imprinted on the transferor's most intimate desires and motivations, including the main desire, which is to search for all that can make possible an extension of himself within his company and thus ensure the permanence of his values and his time at the organisation.

Human determinants influencing the digital transformation strategy of multigenerational family businesses: a multiple-case study of five French growth-oriented family firms

“…Additionally, it is proposed an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) approach, as developed by Smith and Eatough (2017), to inform both research design and data analysis. If IPA research was originally used in psychology to explore personal experience of patients, they are gaining importance in organisational and family firms' studies (Gundolf et al , 2013). While IPA still represents a novel approach, its research design is deemed appropriate to explore key human and cultural resources influencing family business owners facing a complex and contemporary phenomenon (Smith and Osborn 2007).…”

Thirty Years of Research on Succession in the Field of Family Business: A Bibliometric Analysis

“…First, we have included the different terms that are generic to family business such as "family firm" and "family business", according to the keywords used by López-Fernández, Serrano-Bedia and Pérez-Pérez (2016), and those that refer to "family control" and "family ownership" according to Shanker and Astrachan (1996). Second, we have chosen the most generic terms that refer to generational change as "Succession" (Nordqvist et al, 2013;Mackie, 2019), "transmission" (Gundolf, Meier & Missonier, 2013;Aragón-Amonarriz, Arredondo & Iturrioz-Landart, 2019), and "transition" (Moores & Mula, 2000;Stavrou & Swiercz, 1998).…”

Intra-family succession insights: the presence of millennial cohort successors

“…This correlates to the purpose of this study which is to explore a detailed “phenomenological hermeneutical” conceptualization of the lived experience of millennial cohort successors who have successfully undergone the intra-family succession. Moreover, IPA approaches are gaining attention from many scholars in the topic of entrepreneurial behavior (Berglund, 2007; Cope, 2010a, b; Gundolf et al , 2013; Rehman and Roomi, 2012).…”