A major challenge facing the family firm is the succession process. One reason for this challenge might involve the successor's ability to acquire the predecessor's key knowledge and skills adequately to maintain and improve the organizational performance of the firm. This paper uses two theoretical approaches from the strategic management field to explore this critical process and analyze how it can be managed effectively: the resource‐based theory of the firm and the emergent knowledgebased view. This conceptual framework provides a powerful tool for understanding the nature and transfer of knowledge within the family business, which becomes the basis for developing competitive advantage over nonfamily businesses.

Despite the economic relevance and distinctiveness of family firms, little attention has been devoted to researching their nature and functioning.

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The article initially addresses the concept of familiness and its connection with the succession process in the family firm to emphasize the relevance of the successor’s knowledge. Then, a model is presented that evolves from a dyadic relationship in the knowledge transfer process from predecessor to successor to a network of exchanges with multiple agents and sources that enhance the successor’s construction of knowledge through time. Key aspects derived from that model about the successor’s human capital, the predecessor’s role, the knowledge network, the relational context, and the time dimension of the process are then discussed.

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