Success with succession: an empirical study of small Swedish family firms

Abstract

Successful succession in small family firms may be a key to sustainability for the individual firm but also to regional growth. This paper examines how leadership succession factors associated to attitudes, norms and perceived behavioural control of leading actors in a small family firm can be related to how well the succession process works and to the firm's post-transition performance. We structure factors pointed out in earlier studies according to Ajzen's theory of planned behaviour (TpB) where we put forward hypotheses for the three areas. The results based on a survey of 55 small family firms that have experienced a leadership succession show that TpB works well for understanding a successful succession process, but is dismal for understanding post-transition performance. The strongest results are found for aspects linked to perceived behavioural control and attitudes.

Outcome Expectations and Social Entrepreneurial Intention: Integration of Planned Behavior and Social Cognitive Career Theory

“…This paper draws two theory regarding intention: (1) the theory of planned behavior (TPB) (Ajzen, 1991), and (2) social cognitive career theory (SCCT) (Lent et al, 1994(Lent et al, , 2000. TPB has been widely used in many studies of entrepreneurial intention in general and social entrepreneurial intentions in particular (Do Paco et al, 2011;Grünhagen & Volkmann, 2014;Iakovleva & Solesvik, 2014;Vikstrom & Westerberg, 2010;Zainuddin & Ismail, 2011). SCCT is a new approach to measure social entrepreneurial intention (Lanero et al, 2016;Tran et al, 2016) and this approach has not been fully researched.…”

Management Succession and Entrepreneurship Business Sustenance

“…In considering those who have the option to retire early with a reduced pension, this number increases to fifty-four (54) per cent of managers who will be eligible to retire within the next ten years of which twenty-eight per cent can retire within the coming three years. Vikstrom & Wennberg [21] wrote on succession in private firms as an entrepreneurial process. They argue that succession in private firms is an entrepreneurial process.…”

“…The paper explores theoretical, conceptual, and methodological ways of integrating these findings into the research on entrepreneurship and family business. Vikström and Westerberg [21] did a study on succession in small family firms. Their study found that leadership succession factors is associated to attitudes, norms and perceived behavioral control.…”

Determinants Linked to Executive Succession Planning in Public Sector Organizations

“…Ojeka et al (2017) examined firms listed on the Nigerian stock exchange and found that forced internal CEO succession was associated with disorderly and deteriorating performance, and external CEO replacement with improved performance. Vikström and Westerberg (2010) studied Swedish family firms and suggested that the theory of planned behaviour could be useful in succession planning because it helps anticipate successors’ perceived behaviours and controls and delineates the attitudes and norms that affect transition. They suggested that succession planning should be considered across three dimensions, namely attitude, norm and perceived behaviour control.…”

“…Vikström and Westerberg (2010) argued that succession is influenced by attitudes, norms and perceived behavioural control. When these are positive, the result is a more successful role before transition and better post-transition performance.…”