Career Choice Intentions of Adolescents With a Family Business Background

Abstract

This study investigates the determinants of career choice intentions of adolescents with family business background from both adolescents’ and parents’ views. Comparing three groups of adolescents (“intentional successors,” “intentional founders,” and “intentional employees”) from 106 German family firms through multinomial regression analyses, the authors found personality traits (i.e., Openness and Agreeableness), gender, adolescent identification with the family business, perceived parental job rewards, and parental succession preference and preparation to significantly differentiate adolescents’ career choice intentions. Findings add to previous succession research by empirically demonstrating the impact of individual and socialization influences on offspring’s succession intentions as early as in adolescence.