Cultural embeddedness of family businesses succession planning: a comparative study of Poland and Indonesia

Abstract

The research investigates the bases of succession planning in family businesses (FB), especially the cultural background of the phenomenon. The significance of the issue under study comes from the importance of family business in every economy and the delicate matter of succession as an important business development element. The research is based on the observation that the succession determinants are still outside the mainstream of the research. In this study, it is hypothesized that succession planning is influenced by cultural background. The investigation is done by performing a comparative analysis of family businesses’ potential successors from the culturally distant countries: Poland and Indonesia. An empirical survey-based method is applied to investigate the younger generation’s involvement in preparations for the transfer of the family business. The differences in the approach to the younger generation’s succession identified in the survey are not related to such factors as age, size, or succession experience of the business. Instead, there are premises to say that the differences come from the family and business culture based on national specificity. First-hand support for the cultural embeddedness of FB succession planning was found. Furthermore, the results also reaffirm the doubts concerning the importance of post-communist countries’ economic transformation for succession planning. The empirical study confirms the expectations that the specificity of cultural background in Poland could be especially harmful to succession planning in the family business.