Succession Planning as Planned Behavior: Some Empirical Results

Abstract

This paper uses the theory of planned behavior to hypothesize the influence of the incumbent's desire to keep the business in the family, the family's commitment to the business, and the propensity of a trusted successor to take over on the extent to which family firms engage in succession planning activities. We test these hypotheses using data collected from presidents in 118 family firms. The results show that the propensity of a trusted successor to take over significantly affects the incidence of all succession-planning-related activities. Succession planning may, then, be the result of push by the successor more than of pull by the incumbent. Such a view has negative implications for the succession process that the family firms in our sample follow.