Anna Bąkiewicz

Background. The succession of family business has become the topic most often investigated within the family business (FB) research. As we would like to under‑ stand the phenomena we need to recognize its specificity, mechanism of operation, determinants and consequences. In this case, a range of determinants of the pro‑ cess has been investigated so far. But, the flood of publications seems to focus on specific issues, leaving aside some important aspects of the problem.

Research aims. The purpose of the research is to summarize up to date knowledge on the determinants of the succession, and identify possible gaps in research, and thus potential areas for future inquiry. We concentrate on the culture pre‑ vailing in the community the firms operate in as a potentially significant factor determining the behavior of players involved in succession.

Methodology. The discussion undertaken in the paper is theoretical, based on deduction. The determinants of the process of succession are synthetized on the base of literature review. As there is no succession without successor, we concentrate on the younger generation perspective and try to cover the complexity of the issues involved.

Findings. We show important gaps in the research on family business succession, and point at culture embeddedness of the businesses, and the large promising area of intercultural comparative studies for our understanding of succession. We also indicate the legitimacy of a broader view on management issues by setting the problems in a specific cultural environment. The synthesis suggests the necessity of research on cultural determinants of succession, based on comparative analysis of cases from different cultural background. Moreover, it rises doubts if regularities of an organization operations observed in one cultural background would have universal value.

JEL Codes: L26