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The nexus of aging in
family businesses
The nexus of
aging in family
businesses
Decision-making models on
preferring a suitable successor
Cagri Bulut
Department of Business Administration,
Faculty of Business, Yasar University, Izmir, Turkey
Received 21 May 2019
Revised 29 June 2019
Accepted 4 July 2019
Serpil Kahraman
Department of Economics, Faculty of Business, Yasar University, Izmir, Turkey
Emir Ozeren
Reha Midilli Foça Faculty of Tourism,
Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir, Turkey and
Centre for Inclusive and Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CISEI),
University of Southampton, Southampton, UK, and
Sobia Nasir
Department of Business Administration, Graduate School of Social Sciences,
Yasar University, Izmir, Turkey
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to elaborate on the preferences of parent founders within family
businesses in selecting a suitable successor with the increase in life expectancy.
Design/methodology/approach – The study presents alternative decision-making preference models
of a suitable succession for parent founders based on the models of microeconomic theory in the context of
family businesses.
Findings – The theories and models of economics in the current study illustrate that the increase in the life
expectancy of the parent founders with their decisions toward the preference of a suitable successor under the
age constraint may restrict the sustainability of their family businesses. As a result, the opportunity cost
theory appears as to be at the ahead of the other theories in microeconomics in order to support the decision
making of parent founders on selecting the suitable successor for the future of the family business.
Research limitations/implications – The paper illustrates the models on the preferences of the parent
founder for the future of the family businesses with their perception toward the increase in overall life
expectancy. The current study is limited to the perspectives of founder entrepreneurs toward an effective
succession decision. Future research may consider the perspectives of in-family as well as non-family successors.
Originality/value – In the light of alternative preference decision-making models for parent founders for
choosing a suitable successor under the age constraint, this study will make a noteworthy contribution to the
sustainable growth of their family businesses. The approach of this study through the microeconomics not
only methodologically contributes to the body of knowledge in aging and employment in general, but also to
the intergenerational relationships of parent founders, especially their succession-related plans at their early
stages of career.
Keywords Family business, Succession, Aging, Business owners, Preference theory,
Decision-making models
Paper type Conceptual paper
1. Introduction
Succession is one of the most important research areas in the context of strategic decisions
(Evert et al., 2016) as family business owners’ decisions have a direct impact on the
sustainability of any family business (Schell et al., 2018; Del Giudice et al., 2013). As to the
family business survey of PwC (2016), an estimate indicates that only over 30 percent of all
Journal of Organizational Change
Management
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0953-4814
DOI 10.1108/JOCM-05-2019-0140
JOCM
family enterprises ownership transfers the business to the successors. Given that,
succession, in general, is a dynamic process to transfer the hold of family business economy
to a new successor (Yedder, 2018; Sreih et al., 2019).
Due to the increase in life span within the millennium, the career expectations of parent
entrepreneurs and successors diverge from each other (Zellweger et al., 2011). In contrary to
the socioemotional selectivity theory (Carstensen et al., 2003), the expectations of parent
founders toward the business objectives concerning their family businesses do not diminish
(Zacher et al., 2012); moreover, the successful aging of parent founders creates an invisible
career barrier like a glass ceiling on their successors’ careers objectives for becoming the
subsequent CEO of their family businesses. Apart from the developing literature in the family
business succession (Evert et al., 2016), especially the decision-making preference model on
preferring a suitable successor is one of the neglected areas of interest within both the practice
and the literature of family business management that deserves further scholarly inquiry.
Thus, the aim of this study is to tailor the decision-making models of microeconomic theory to
the parent founders on preferring a suitable successor under the age constraint.
Considering the fact that the life expectancy of humanity has never been as high as in
millennium, the expectancies and attitudes of parent founders are in change toward both
their ongoing business and their successors (Zacher et al., 2012). As to the socioemotional
selectivity theory, individuals at their senior ages, alter their personal goals from their
professional career to the emotionally meaningful motivators (Carstensen et al., 2003).
However, occurrence of a specific goal or a preference controls the time perspective of an
individual between the biological and psychological age; thus, the behaviors of older and
younger people become identical (Carstensen, 2006). Accordingly, while parent founders
grow older, their expectancies from the remaining lifetime converge with their perceived
business opportunities over the ongoing family business as similar to their number of
business objectives at the younger ages.
Either because of their commitments to their occupations (McMullen and Warnick, 2015)
and their socioemotional ties in the family business (Zahra, 2003) or because of their
remaining business objectives in the family business, the parent founders do not tend to
leave their positions or roles. Given the extended career in family businesses of parent
founders, both their perceived remaining time and opportunities in the ongoing family
business influence their perceptions toward the employability of their successors (Zacher
and de Lange, 2011) or selection of a suitable successor as the subsequent CEO. Therefore,
the parent founders may keep their succession decision pending based on the employability
of a subsequent generation as the new business leader by considering their perceived
remaining time in the family business for retirement (Zacher et al., 2012). When the parent
founders go on with at their leadership positions or roles, their pending decisions on
preferring a suitable successor may create a Prince Charles Syndrome (Keating, 1999). The
perceptions of the parent founders on successful aging may eliminate the potentiality of a
subsequent successor and may create a candidate pool including a full of the alternative
successors. To accomplish the aim of this study is to present alternative preference decision
models of a suitable succession for parent founders by borrowing the theories and models of
microeconomics in order to sustain the growth of their family businesses.
The family business research has a predominant focus on the succession process and/or
post-succession performance (i.e. Gilding et al., 2015) by incorporating several theories (i.e.
Chrisman et al., 2003) and by utilizing diverse methodological issues and considerations
(Brockhaus, 2004; Cisneros et al., 2018). Although there is some body of evidence on the
attitudes of parent founders toward the succession in family businesses, such as their
commitment to their child successors (McMullen and Warnick, 2015), alternative decision
models on preferring a suitable successor with founders’ aging appear to be non-existent in
the literature. Hence, a preference model that will guide the parent founders on deciding for
a suitable successor under age perception of a parent founder in this study is likely to
contribute to the practices as well as the literature of family business management.
The departing point of this study is to shed some light on making effective decisions for
preferring a suitable succession by considering the business opportunities under the age
constraint through microeconomic perspective. Therefore, the current study contributes to the
literature on choosing a suitable successor under the age constraint of parent founders
through microeconomic theories. The study models the decisional outcomes of parent
founders in their family businesses with aging concerns. The interdisciplinary approach of
this study through the economics not only methodologically contributes to the body of
knowledge in aging and employment in general but also to the intergenerational relationships
of parent founders and especially their roles in senior ages. The study is to provide alternative
decision-making preference models from the microeconomics viewpoint regarding the
business objectives and preferring a suitable successor in the context of family businesses. By
adopting the theories and models of economics such as indifference curves, backwardbending supply curve, marginal rate of substitution (MRS) and opportunity cost to family
business management, this study theoretically demonstrates the preferences of parent
founders about developing more business objectives or selecting a suitable successor under
the age constraint by themselves. The preference models in this study elaborates the
proximity to a decision of parent founders on developing more business objectives or selecting
a suitable successor, when a parent founder is close to the retirement and a long term in
retirement from the family business. The indifference curves in this study run the preferences
of parent founder between business objectives and suitable successors under the two possible
situations. The first situation is when parent founders perfectly substitute preferences for
deciding a suitable successor. The latter situation is when their preferences stuck in the
middle as in imperfect substitution. Precisely, we address the following research question:
RQ1. What are the alternative preference decision models of parent founders for a
suitable succession under the age constraint?
This study has three sections: Section 1 following the introduction presents the conceptual
framework and theoretical background of the study. Section 2 elaborates the microeconomic
preferences of parent founders toward the business objectives and suitable successors. The
final section concludes the study with implications for the family businesses and offers
several directions for future research.
2. Background and literature review
Choosing a suitable successor is one of the utmost outcomes of administering complex
problems that proceed in family business for its sustainability in the long term. It is, though
an essential turning point for family business owners, also a critical research area for either
the growth or survival of the family business in long terms. However, the future of the many
family businesses is at threaten because of the delays that arise from their wills of
developing more numbers of business objectives for their ongoing businesses under their
age constraint, in the parent founders decisions on choosing the suitable successors.
As to the family business survey of PwC (2016), the report indicates that only over 30 percent
of all family enterprises ownership transfers the business to the successors. Given that, the
succession, is a dynamic process by means of transferring the hold of the family business
economy to a new successor (Yedder, 2018; Sreih et al., 2019) generally. Moreover, the sustainable
growth of family businesses is to a large extent depended on the psychological motions of the
parent founder toward the business objectives and employability of a suitable successor as the
subsequent CEO (Camfield and Franco, 2019). According to the socioemotional selectivity theory,
besides senior-aged people are getting wiser and happier, they tend to lower the risks in their
both lives and professions, thus, become relatively conservative by aging (Hendricks and
The nexus of
aging in family
businesses
JOCM
Cutler, 2004). However, the family business literature mainly focuses on the succession process
and/or post-succession performance (i.e. Gilding et al., 2015) by integrating miscellaneous theories
(i.e. Chrisman et al., 2003) and by using diverse methodologies (Brockhaus, 2004; Cisneros et al.,
2018). For example, there is evidence on exploring the succession challenges from a gender
perspective (Vera and Dean, 2005; Ferrari, 2019), examining the stakeholder engagement of
family businesses (Cennamo et al., 2012; Bozer et al., 2017), predecessors and outcomes toward
succession planning (Gilding et al., 2015) or managing the change through conflicts (Classen and
Schulte, 2017) in the literature. A number of studies investigate the underpinnings of why
founders do not prefer to leave the organization at early senior ages by concentrating on the
succession process or the post-succession performance (Cisneros et al., 2018). Previous research
also investigates the attitudes and predispositions of family members and founders toward the
succession (Camfield and Franco, 2019) such as the emotional commitment of family business
owners toward their corporations (McMullen and Warnick, 2015), the strong ties of founders
within the family business (Zahra, 2003) or the personal values toward the ongoing family
business (Camfield and Franco, 2019). Despite these facts, several suggestions on how to prepare
one of the next generations to become the subsequent leader widely exist in the family business
studies (Sreih et al., 2019). The specific questions regarding how to make optimal decisions on
preferring a suitable successor by considering the life-span perception of the parent founders
related to the relationship between their business objectives and their chronological ages still
warrant a well-grounded conceptual clarification. Consistent with this view, a comprehensive
bibliometric study on the family business succession also posits a research shortage of how the
succession decisions evolve in the family businesses (Cisneros et al., 2018).
A decision on the employability of a suitable successor for the family business refers to attain
and maintain the hiring process of a new CEO either from the family or out of the family
(Van Der Heijde and Van Der Heijden, 2006). The parent founders mostly prefer to appoint a new
leader within the family based on a few reasons; first, they are well socialized and familiar to the
environment, culture, norms and key stakeholders of the business. Second, the inner-family
employability preference increases the value of family business by protecting the information
held by the members of family (Bjuggren and Sund, 2005). Finally, a successor from the family
allows the existing founder to control the financial decisions and to stay involved within the
business (DeTienne and Cardon, 2012). In short, the parent founder expects to ensure that
personal capabilities and optimistic behavioral approaches of a successor toward the efficiency
of business are ready. The employability literature reflects various domains such as, education,
human resource development and career psychology (Van Der Heijde and Van Der Heijden,
2006). However, an elaboration on the preferences of parent founders toward business objectives
and suitable successors lacks in family business research.
3. Chronological age, suitable successors and business objectives
of parent founders
The future time perspective of a parent founder refers to a perceived endpoint according to a
chronological business tenure (Scheibe et al., 2015) by referring strategic views, administrative
approaches and activities related to retirement solutions of founders (Lyu and Huang, 2016).
In order to secure the financial comfort of the family in the future and to sustain the
profitability of the family business, the founders struggle in making strategic choices on
developing more business objectives and on the intergenerational continuity including related
financial transitions, a long time before their retirements (Henry et al., 2017). Along with the
planning, the succession process appears to be a critical challenge (Dyer and Handler, 1994),
deciding for the suitable successor is the most critical concern of founders (De Massis et al.,
2008). Since an effective transfer of intangible resources of the family business to a suitable
successor lead a family business to the competitive edge (Sreih et al., 2019), an effective
succession process implicates the transfer of both the tacit knowledge (Cabrera-Suárez et al.,
2001) and the personal networks of parent founders to their suitable successors (Steier, 2001).
Although the parent founders provide occupational orientations for all potential successors by
letting them familiarize with the processes, they also execute daily practices with their key
stakeholders before assigning them formal positions on the organizational chart of the family
business. Yet selecting the suitable successor remains critical. The literature pays relatively
less attention toward the subjective sense of time that parent founders regard (Liao and
Carstensen, 2018), but the remaining business objectives of the parent founders over their
family businesses are their another concern regarding their chronological age toward their
future time perspective (Cate and John, 2007).
The following two graphical models of the study on the “preferences of parent founders”
(PFP) are the demonstrations of economics functions that include business objectives,
suitable successors, and time perception. Accordingly, PFP ¼ f (CA, BO, SS) is one of the
preferences model of parent founders (PFP) pointed out as the function of approximate to
the decision of developing more business objectives (BO), a proximity of choosing of
suitable successors (SS), and the chronological age (CA). Chronological age is the “sticky
variable”; the age is the variable that is sticky to downward.
In Figure 1, PFP ¼ f(CA, BO) indicates the negative relation between the chronological
age of parent founders and the number of business objectives in their family businesses. If
the age of parent founders increases, their number of business objectives decreases which
cause the parent founders to focus more on eliminating the successors for a suitable one
rather than developing more and more business objectives (mostly they are about to retire).
In Figure 2, PFP ¼ f (CA, SS) indicates that the positive relationship between chronological
age and number of suitable successors. When the chronological age of parent founder increases,
the number of alternative suitable successors increases as well, for example, the next generation,
the subsequent generation after the next generation or close relatives that tenure in the family
business for a very long time. With the degree of slope of both lines, here the number of new
The nexus of
aging in family
businesses
CA
BO (–)
Q
Figure 1.
Business objective
(BO) curve
CA
SS (+)
Q
Figure 2.
Suitable successor
(SS) curve
JOCM
business objectives and the number of alternative suitable successors demonstrate the effect of
age on proximity to decisions as a constraint. If the degree of the slope increases, the effect of
chronological age on the decision of parent founders also increases.
3.1 Equilibrium points of deciding for the suitable successor
The parent founders tend to monitor the outcomes of their decisions, the value of the
outcomes and all other benefits in terms of their return cost with patience (McConaughy,
1999). The opportunity cost refers to the cost of the second-best alternative. It plays an
important role on the decisions of the parent founders along with their chronological age.
The opportunity cost helps the psychological self-evaluations of parent founders on
the utilization of the limited resources of family business effectively or not in a specific
timeline (Astrachan and Kolenko, 1994). In order to demonstrate the trade-off between
developing business objectives and selecting a suitable successor for the future of the family
business, utilizing the opportunity cost theory is important. Because the theory explicitly
illustrates the timing of an effective decision on preferring the suitable successor with the
business objectives according to a chronological age.
Particularly, the enthusiasm to determine the selection of suitable successors depends on
the parent founder’s perceptions toward the future in terms of their personal views, values,
objectives and other personality characteristics (Degadt, 2003).
Figures 3 and 6 indicate the effect of three different chronological age period of parent
founder on their decisions. Figure 3 shows the equilibrium (E) for proximity to decision for
selecting the suitable successor; when the parent founder’s chronological age is Cat*, the
proximity to decide for developing more business objectives and the proximity to make the
decision for a suitable successor become equal under the age constraint.
Referring to the socioemotional selectivity theory (English and Carstensen, 2014), the
parent founders gradually plan their strategic decisions according to their perception of
having a long time in retirement. Contrarily, when the parent founders perceive limited time
horizons, they show swift preferences for the exploration to elect a suitable successor within
family or among the potential successors (Fung and Carstensen, 2006).
The parent founder focuses toward intrinsic goals when they feel close to the retirement
mostly because of increasing age. For instance, in Figure 4 when parent founder is at the age
CA(t*+n), short term to retirement, parent founders’ proximity to SS is higher than proximity
to BO, where AB ¼ SS W BO. In contrast, when the parent founder feels that there is long
time to retirement from this position, the incline is more toward the business objectives
(Carstensen, 2006). For instance, when the parent founder is at the age CA(t*−n), long term to
retirement, the parent founders’ proximity to BO is higher than proximity to SS where
AB ¼ BO W SS, in Figure 5.
CA
SS
E
CAt *
BO
Figure 3.
Preference curve of a
parent founder (PFP)
Q
Q*
The nexus of
aging in family
businesses
CA
C
D
SS
CA(t *+n)
E
CAt *
BO
Figure 4.
PFP curve when
close to retirement
Q
BO
Q*
SS
CA
SS
E
CAt *
CA(t *–n)
A
B
BO
Q
SS
Q*
BO
As to the socioemotional selectivity theory, when the future time perspective of individuals
gets shorter, their daily practices and individual expectancies of their professional career
replace with the emotionally meaning ones (Carstensen, 2006). As in the millennium, the
significant increase in life expectancy with successful aging provides a more meaningful long
life. Thus, though individuals chronologically get older, their perceived ages remain young. In
contrary, for the founder parents, when their perceptions toward the time change, they tend to
prefer developing more business objectives instead of selecting a suitable successor.
In Figure 6, if the life expectancy of parent founder increases, due to the increasing
chronological age, the proximity to developing more business objectives increases as well
(shift from BO to BO1), but the selecting suitable successor remains constant. While the
business objectives increases at the age of CAt*, in practice the parent founders tend to keep
the decision of choosing a suitable successor. As the E point becomes the new equilibrium
point of choosing a suitable successor, the parent founders focus on developing more
number of business objectives instead of postponing his decision for selecting a suitable
successor. Under this condition CA is the sticky variable. The parent founders get age until
the E point to consider choosing a suitable successor for the family business in practice.
However, in the flow of life while the parent founders get aged, their successors get aged too
that may create problems for the suitable successor. Because, if the suitable successor gets
tenure as a partner in the family business or leaves the business based on perceiving a glass
ceiling, subsequent generations in the family become the competitors of the visible suitable
successor also the number of potential suitable successors which increases the number of
potential suitable successors.
Figure 5.
PFP curve when long
time in retirement
JOCM
CA
SS
E
CAt *
BO1
Figure 6.
The effect of life
expectancy on the
preferences of a
parent founder
BO
Q
Q*
Figure 7 is an adaptation of the backward-bending supply curve analyses of microeconomic
theory according to the age of parent entrepreneurs and their business objectives for their family
businesses. The graph demonstrates the two phases of an equilibrium point concerning the
timing of selecting the suitable successor for parent entrepreneurs to sustain the growth of their
family businesses. The first phase demonstrates the income effect (Arrow.1) and the second
phase is the substitution effect (Arrow.2). The income effect shows a positive relationship
between the age of the founder-entrepreneur and number of business objectives. In Figure 7, the
positive relationship exists between the chronological age of the parent entrepreneurs (CA) and
the number of business objectives that parent entrepreneurs develop (BO). When CA increases,
the number business objectives increase until the point BOE; thus, the positive relationship occurs
for the family business until the leader’s age of CAt* that is shown by the direction of Arrow.1.
The efforts on developing more numbers of business objectives increase until the equilibrium
point of E as it is the intersection of CAt* and BOE. Accordingly, the parent entrepreneurs
develop and implement a number of business objectives (BOE) until a certain age because till that
certain age (CAt*) they focus on generating more income for their family businesses.
The parent entrepreneurs naturally stop developing or implementing new business
objectives (BOE); hence, the growth of the family business pauses. At the age of CAt* in Figure 7,
the substitution effect arouses for parent entrepreneurs. Because, beginning from the
equilibrium point of E, which is shown by the direction of Arrow.2, the number of business
objectives that founder entrepreneurs develop starts to decrease. Relying on the increasing
age of parent entrepreneurs (the substitutions effect) negatively affect the income of their
family businesses. Regarding their perceived life expectancy with successful aging, if they are
not able to choose a suitable successor at the E point, they may become very late to sustain and
CA
2
E
CAt *
1
Figure 7.
Backward-blending
curve of a parent
founder’s preference
BO
BOE
survive their family businesses in long term. Therefore, the point of CAt* is the optimum timing
for an effective succession and for the sustainability of the family businesses.
As to the socioemotional selectivity theory, while the individuals take more risk and invest in
their careers at younger ages, they tend to avoid risks or take lower risks at the senior age
(Carstensen, 2006). Accordingly, the parent entrepreneurs move the family business to a certain
growth point (along the Arrow.1) and make a sufficient growth for their family business until the
age of CAt*. The business objectives of founder entrepreneurs begin to diminish after at a certain
age as the point of CAt* in Figure 7. To keep the family business in growth, the founder
entrepreneurs need to replace their leading position with a suitable successor at the E point.
After the age at the CAt*, a negative relationship occurs between the chronological age and
developing or implementing new business objectives. Therefore, the bending point E not just
presents the maximum income generation point of the family business with the current parent
entrepreneur but also shows the timing of the suitable succession. The sustainable growth of the
family business depends on the choices of parent founders’ between developing more business
objectives and selecting suitable successors under the age constraint.
The nexus of
aging in family
businesses
3.2 Utility preferences of parent founders
The succession process into the family businesses reflects the decision of transferring the
ownership of family business to a next generation (Ramadani et al., 2017), which depicts a
parent founder’s decision whether to stay at the key position or leave the family business by
taking a rational expectancies for the future (DeTienne, 2010). The prior studies emphasize
that the decision processes based on different paths for exit plans of parent founder.
However, the literature does not provide what the substitutions of a suitable successor are
and the related preferences.
To elaborate, the section explains preferences of parent founder by using indifference curve
analysis. In economics, indifference curves graphically demonstrate a consumer’s preference
toward the combinations of two goods giving the equal level of utility to the consumer under
the budget constraint, thereby making the consumer indifferent. Here, in this study, we
tailored the indifference curve that the parent founder prefers only one option, either business
objectives or a suitable successor by comparing the expected utility of the preferences.
Figures 8 and 9 both illustrate the preferences of a parent founder regarding suitable
successors and business objectives. Each of the indifference curve of a parent founder
(ICPF) with numbers shows an alternative decision of a preference between selecting a
suitable successor and developing a business objective. Although Figure 8 illustrates the
indifference curve of parent founder when these preferences are perfect substitutes, Figure 9
shows the preferences of the parent founder when preferences are imperfectly substitutes.
Based on the indifference curve in Figure 8, first, we assume that business objectives say X
SS
ICPF3
ICPF2
ICPF1
BO
ICPF1
ICPF2 ICPF3
Figure 8.
ICPF in perfect
substitution
JOCM
(the horizontal axis), the suitable successor, say Y (the vertical axis) are perfectly substitute,
and straight lines in between X and Y at a constant rate based on age constraint. In detail,
preferences of parent founder are constant, equal to the slope of the lines that are ICPF1,
ICPF2 and ICPF3. When the founder values the preference of business objectives, the
second-best alternative (a suitable successor) of giving up of the parent founder would be
the opportunity cost of this preference. So that both preferences are interchangeable and
give the equal level of utility to the parent founder.
The slope of the indifference curve is known as the MRS, i.e., MRSx,y ¼ constant gives us
the rate that the founder is to give up one preference for another. In general, preferences for
the perfect substitutes can be represented by a utility function in the following form:
U ¼ f ðx; yÞ and U ðx; yÞ ¼ axþ by here the MRSx:y ¼ a=b:
For perfect substitutes, technically MRS ¼ 1 and is not diminishing, it will remain constant.
Therefore, ICPF is negatively sloped straight lines, but not convex to the origin.
Second, in Figure 9, the standard convex indifference curve graph shows that two
preferences are imperfect substitutes. Thus, founder’s preference move from one to another
preference (e.g. between ICPF1 and ICPF2) but both preferences are not on the same way as
the preference replaces if the founder of family business may consider them as imperfect
substitutes. The structure of the founder’s preferences in BO and SS gives the slope of the
indifference curves. Accordingly, preferences are not identical but utility to remain constant
and the founder tends to replace them, which implies the convexity of the indifference
curves, for example, imperfect substitutability.
4. Discussion and conclusion
The long-term sustainability of any family business relies on effective succession. Succession
occurs in three stages that are “pre-succession,” “succession” and “post-succession.” While the
literature extensively focuses on the issues and processes within succession and post-succession
stages (Gilding et al., 2015), the decisions of parent founders at pre-succession stage remain
relatively uncovered. Based on the socioemotional selectivity theory, the life expectancy of
humanity is in a significant increase in the millennium (Carstensen et al., 2003). In line with a
rising life expectancy of parent founders, their decisions at the stage of “pre-succession” are
relatively extended with their perceived remaining time at their family businesses (Zacher and de
Lange, 2011). For parent founders, an equilibrium point on when to make a decision for an
effective succession is one of the critical issues for the sustainability of family businesses.
Drawing on theories and models from microeconomics (indifference curves,
backward-bending supply curve, MRS and opportunity cost), the current study offers
valuable insights for parent founders on their preference decisions whether to remain the
leader of the family business or to choose a suitable successor. In addressing the research
SS
ICPF1
Figure 9.
ICPF in imperfect
substitution
ICPF2
BO
question of the study, we elaborate on the alternative preference decisions for parent
founders including when to decide on choosing a suitable successor under the changing
time perspective with six graphical models. The contribution of this study is to put
forward alternative preference decision models of a suitable succession for parent
founders in facilitating the sustainable growth of family businesses across generations.
The current study is limited to the perspectives of parent founders toward an effective
succession decision; however, further studies may also elaborate on the preferences of the
successors. While we built this study on the succession decisions for parent founders,
another direction for future research is to employ different exit strategies (DeTienne et al.,
2015) other than the succession for parent entrepreneurs whether/when to make their
decisions for employee-buyouts or voluntarily cessations in the light of aging and life
expectancy perspectives. On the other hand, under the constraint of a lack or shortage of a
suitable successor within the family, the decision models of heirs toward electing a suitable
successor can be subject to a scholarly investigation for future research.
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Further reading
Lozano-Posso, M. and Urbano, D. (2017), “Relevant factors in the process of socialization, involvement
and belonging of descendants in family Businesses”, Innovar, Vol. 27 No. 63, pp. 61-76,
doi: 10.15446/innovar.v26n63.60665.
Corresponding author
Cagri Bulut can be contacted at: cagri.bulut@yasar.edu.tr
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The nexus of
aging in family
businesses