Thomas Zellweger

Family business owners have a strong desire to keep their company under family control across generations. But who is best suited to take over, and which factors encourage succession within the next generation? In our previous study, Coming home or breaking free? Career choice intentions of the next generation in family businesses (2011), we explored what motivates students to pursue a career in the family business. In this study, we continue that exploration of succession intentions but with an even broader international scope. Some of our more interesting findings include: - Only 3.5% of all next generation members want to take over their parents' firm directly after college graduation; 4.9% plan to do so five years later. - The pool of potential successors who are generally open to becoming a successor is much larger (19.8% of all students with family business background). - Since 2011, succession intentions have been decreasing; we estimate a decrease of around 30%. Likely causes include a more attractive job market and potential successors developing deeper insights into what it takes to assume control of the family business. While fewer next-generation members intend to become successors, those who do may be more motivated and better prepared. - Female potential successors have weaker succession intentions than their male counterparts. In addition, we identify different important drivers of succession intentions on the cultural and institutional level, the individual level, the firm level, and the family level.