Intergenerational Knowledge Transfer Strategy Framework for Family Firm

The father’s role in supporting the son’s business knowledge development process in Vietnamese family businesses

“…The successor absorbs the knowledge from the predecessor. Normally, a predecessor will advise what and how to do something, explain why it is done and amend actions or mistakes made by the successor (Bracci and Vagnoni, 2011;Sabri et al, 2016). This approach is consistent with Nonaka and Takeuchi's (1995) research which proposed a pattern to the transfer of knowledge between individuals as occurring through observation and continuous use and reuse.…”

“…The successor's business knowledge development process also improves greatly after joining the family business as a full-time employee (Cabrera-Suárez et al, 2001). Sabri et al (2016) argue that the successor often gains business knowledge from the founder through the mentor-mentee approach where the predecessor acts as a mentor who has the knowledge, experience and/or expertise and will counsel The father's role in supporting the son's business knowledge development process in Vietnamese family businesses, Journal of Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies. doi: 10.1108/JEEE-01-2018-0006 10 the successor as a mentee.…”

“…The research adopted a qualitative inductive approach using face-to-face discussions with participants and collecting data based upon their feelings, experiences, and opinions. Qualitative approaches have been widely used in family business research (Chirico, 2007;Dumas, 1989;Handler, 1990;Sabri et al, 2016) The concept of a Vietnamese family business is defined based upon the criteria outlined by Westhead et al (2002), which suggest 4 characteristics to recognise family businesses, namely; a single family holds the majority of the shares; the owner(s) are considering passing ownership to the next generations of family members; the owners form an emotional kinship group who perceive their company as being a family business; and the company is managed directly by family members.…”

“…The existing literature is largely focused on how the successor gains business knowledge during the succession process (Bracci and Vagnoni, 2011;Cabrera-Suárez et al, 2001;Chirico, 2007;Sabri et al, 2016;Varamäki et al, 2003). In addition, the majority of the research focuses on the role of the predecessor in supporting the successor to gain business knowledge after the successor joins the family business as a full-time employee rather than considering the predecessor's role in the process before the successor joins the family business and after the successor becomes the leader (Cabrera-Suárez et al, 2001;Higginson, 2010;Letonja and Duh, 2015;Sabri et al, 2016). As a result, the role of the predecessor in the whole process is under The results of this research offer insights into the successor's business learning process with particular relevance for family businesses in the Vietnamese (and other similar Asian) context, and thus for effective succession planning.…”

“…full-time employee.The existing research highlights the role of the predecessor in supporting the successor's business competence development process after the successor joins the family business as a full-time employee(Bracci and Vagnoni, 2011; Letonja et al, Pham, T.T., Bell, R. & Newton, D. (2018) The father's role in supporting the son's business knowledge development process in Vietnamese family businesses, Journal of Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies. doi: 10.1108/JEEE-01-2018-0006 11 2012;Sabri et al, 2016). However, knowledge about the role of the predecessor in supporting the successor's business knowledge development process during childhood, formal education, and gaining external experience before joining the family business, is still limited and needs further research, particularly in the context of collectivist societies.…”