Identifying Industry-Specific Barriers to Inheritance in Small Family Businesses

Abstract

This article explores generic and industry-specific barriers to inheritance among family businesses within the tourism and hospitality industry. Data from comparable surveys of owners of tourism and hospitality businesses in Denmark and Canada reveal a very low rate of inheritance and a number of industry-specific barriers, including those related to location (e.g., remoteness and small-town settings result in out-migration by children who do not share their parents' lifestyle goals); nature of the work (long hours, high contact with customers, and hands-on labor make the business unappealing); viability of the business (seasonality of demand, taxes, or inseparability of business and family assets result in low potential for inheritance); and the lifestage of parents and children (many owners are in a second career or preretirement enterprise, and children cannot become involved). A number of hypotheses arise from this research and a framework for examining generic and industry-specific barriers is presented, with commentary on how other industries could be examined for these barriers.