Taking over the Family Business

Why do successors decide to join family businesses? This study investigated the largely ignored perspective of the successor on succession as a career decision process. Grounded on family business and career development theory, insights gained from the qualitative analysis of 16 in-depth interviews with successors were used to develop a successor profiling tool composed of three main elements: the succession decision as a process, the influences of facilitating and inhibiting factors and the underlying successor commitment over time. A gender-sensitive perspective was adopted to account for gender differences during tool development. The developed tool offers a practical contribution by helping young family business members to consider succession in relation to their career development.