LA ESTRUCTURA Y CLASIFICACIÓN DE LOS TIPOS

The family system in family businesses can be a source of power or threat for the business. The theoretical part (see above) revealed certain issues within the family system that are important to consider in family businesses. In phases of succession, the family and its members are stepping upfront as their interests are highly dependent by the big change in the business. The family system supports the business by providing a basic culture and values that influence the predecessor, the successor, and in effect the business through influencing ownership strategies. From the data generated through interviewing successors, the following

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I7/68-70: "That's an irrational battle. We are much more profitable now, but profitability wasn't that important to my predecessors. ... When you continually hear 'shareholder value' throughout your studies, you just pay more attention to it."

sub-systems emerged, which are described below in detail followed by a proposition generation.

Family Culture and Values

Businesses where a family is involved in controlling and/or managing the business is highly dependent on the behavior and demands of the business family122. Friction and unbalanced business family strategies heavily influence the business strategy and well-being. Thus, an owner manager of a family firm needs to balance the family strategy with the business strategy (cf. Carlock & Ward, 2001). In a simplified model, a business family can be consuming or creating value (by being dependent or industrious to the business) and divided or united (by being at odds with each other or orderly and united)123. Family businesses that displayed effective succession appeal to put business first, which is shown in both few (financial) demands and creation of value coming from the family.

In this sense, effective successors seem to be able to concentrate on the needs of the business rather than on the needs of the family, which reduces overall complexity for the successor. Cases with effective succession showed that the family is quite clear about the purpose of the business and distribution of profits124125. This leads to the following proposition:

Proposition C.1

Effective successors have business families that put business first. These business families have defined what they want to achieve with their company.

This proposition was not included in the survey as it was not repeatedly mentioned by the interviewees. However, this aspect may be important and shall be included in the general suggestions for successors as an aspect to reflect.

Having a defined the purpose of the business from the perspective of a family, helps moderate and line-up discussions on the business's basic strategy. For example, this leads to a clear

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See chapters 1.2, 0

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See Davis (2011) or point 3.4.2

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I4/59: “The family must define itself, from its perspective as a family, what it wants to achieve with the company. That is: what purpose does the business fulfil from the family's perspective."

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I4/59: "We have a clear rule when it comes to profit distribution. A minimum of 85% of the profit is to be kept in the company."

profit distribution rule, which is ideally accepted by everyone. During the succession phases, the business is undergoing a huge change process as the management (sometimes even the whole management board) is being renewed. Basic business needs, such as a stable financial ground, is therefore important especially during succession. Business families that place business first and define the purpose of the business support the process by giving certain stability.

Family Dynamics and Conflicts

The literature mentions that successors are sometimes confronted with a pronounced narcism of the incumbent. This is rooted in a number of reasons. However, the effective cases investigated in this work showed a general and explicitly positive relationship between the successors and the incumbents, with no sigh of pronounced narcissm of the senior generation. The majority of the successors mentioned the positive relationship they had or presently have. The effective successors report few conflicts with their senior generation. Thus, conflict solution processes hardly exist. Instead, one could speak of the effective conflict prevention due to the ability of the successor to acknowledge the existence of different opinions and together with a seemingly good discussion culture126. Effective successors communicate in a civil manner. For example, the successors report that they did not experience situations where screaming was involved. Effective successors have further showed the ability to understand different roles and needs of the individual’s developmental stages, e.g., the switch of the senior generation from being a leader to not being a leader anymore. In cases where there are obstacles to overcome, such as role switching, external advise is sought to better facilitate the change process.

Proposition C.2

Effective successors acknowledge the existence of different opinions and shown that they belong to a family culture that fosters constructive debate.

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I2/69: "Conflicts? Here we have a very good foundation of 'live and let live'. But there were never really any large problems - everybody has his own opinion, but that is accepted as such. This is much easier when basic values are shared".

This proposition was not included in the survey as it was not repeatedly mentioned by the interviewees. However, this aspect may be important and shall be included in the general suggestions for successors as an aspect to reflect.

Family Trust and Appreciation

Trust seems to play another essential part in effective succession. Many effective successors report that they have obtained and highly value the general trust exhibited by the family127. Assumingly, trust helps the successor focus on the business rather than on achieving trust128. Furthermore, and in order to have only few conflicts between the senior and successor generation, effective successor checks the overlap between basic values and beliefs. This is usually evaluated before succession, for example, by participating in advisory board meetings where principal directions for the business are discussed129. Sharing basic values seems to be crucial. In this sense, the existence of mutual respect between both the successor and the predecessor appears to be a crucial factor for effective succession130131. This leads to the following proposition:

Proposition C.3

Effective successors obtain and value the trust exhibited by the family. This is also rooted in the fact that they share basic values with the older generation.

In the survey, this was supported by 93 %. 6 % stated neutral and 2 % disagreed. With an arithmetic average of 1.39 this finding was strongly supported.

36 (71%) Fully agree

11 (22%) Agree

3 (6%) neutral

1 (2%) Disagree

0 (0%) Fully Disagree

Arithmetic average: 1.39 - Median: 1 - Standard deviation: 0.688

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I11/122-124, I3/14-15, I4/24, I5/37, I7/38, I12/59, I9/36, I13/41

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I4/24: „And the most benefical thing was that he (father) trusted the new generation, including me as the managing director, 100 per cent."

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I13/41: "That we think similarly about our basic principles was clear to me already due to my role in the advisory board.”

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I4/24: “And the most benefical was that he (father) trusted the new generation 100%.“

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Table 4-9: Survey results on proposition C.3

With an α-value of 0.021 on dependent variable 8 (personal goals achieved) and an α-value of 0.002 on dependent variable 9 (effectiveness of succession), the results show a highly

significant correlation of expectations on good business performance and effectiveness of succession.