GENERATIONAL REPLACEMENT IN FAMILY BUSINESSES: CASES OF SUCCESS AND FAILURE

The identification of the company with the family allows the fundamental purposes of the family in some ways to be transferred to the company, and establishes in the foreground objectives which are not strictly economic, such as the maintenance of cohesion among family members, territorial rooting, the importance given to family values, the reputation of family, and the relationships with collaborators. On the other hand, the strong identification of the family in the company can bring out some “risks” linked to the “family” nature. n many enterprises, these factors cause the perpetuation of immobility at the top of the company, and delay generational replacement. The importance of replacement lies in the difficulty of bringing this process to completion without putting the assets of the companies at risk. The success of the generational turnover is the result of the capacity of the family business to keep existing with the passing of time, thanks to the succession in the control of the business of one or more heirs of the same family. For the generational turnover the figure of the successor is fundamental and his/her personal experience is relevant in the process of succession. In this respect, it is believed that, in a family business, the success of a generational turnover depends essentially on the entrepreneur’s capability to transfer, to his successor, through various modalities of preparation of the succession, the capital of intangible resources often tacit and non-transferable, which are part of him. Even though, in many cases, the succession causes the decline, it may also represent an occasion of development for the family business which, by using the new successor’s skills, may carry out those innovations which are made necessary by the changes in the competitive environment and which are essential to keep or increase the business competitiveness in the time.