| Family businesses have been part of the business world from the beginning, and made an important contribution to the economic and social well-being throughout the world. However, they are not always smoothly sailing. It has been estimated that, internationally, only 30 percent of family businesses survive to the second generation, while approximately 10 percent to 15 percent make it beyond the third generation. In China, most of the first-generation family firms throughout the economy were founded after the Reform and Opening Up, and today their founders are confronting the realities of succession and retirement. Hence, it is quite clear how important it is to find measures to make their successions more efficient, so as to realize their continuing growth. In recent years, although great research efforts have been devoted to this topic and the research interest is increasing rapidly, it is still insignificant comparing to the sheer number of family firms in China and the number of owner-managers who are leaving leadership positions. Against this background, family business intergenerational succession is selected as the core subject of this research.In Chapter 2, a comprehensive literature study was conducted to gain deeper insights into the phenomenon of succession. By doing so, we found that family business succession should be a multi-dimensional phenomenon. Its success not only means the continuity of ownership and management, but also implies the preservation of one or more essential and unique core elements. However, although a number of elements have been suggested, this body of work is still highly fragmented and the relative importance of each of these elements as well as their transition process is still indistinct. This status seriously impedes the progress of the field of family business succession study. In this research, the succession elements will be systematically identified and their transition processes will be uncovered so as to bridge the gaps in the body of knowledge in this area.In Chapter 3, we systematically identify the succession elements at individual level of entrepreneurs. First, a brief literature review was conducted. Then, 41 media reports were structurally analyzed and data collected from 60 family firms facing succession issues were statistically analyzed. The empirical results indicate that the entrepreneurial tacit knowledge, the entrepreneurial network, and the entrepreneurial spirit are three kinds of important elements that need to be transferred besides wealth and power. In the entrepreneurial tacit knowledge transfer process, the predecessors usually regard the know-how as important as mental models, while the successors pay more attention to the know-how especially the managerial experience. About the entrepreneurial network, compared with their children, entrepreneurs rate the entrepreneurial network higher in the rating of succession elements, but they both consider that external networks are more important than internal networks. Results also show that both entrepreneurs and their children recognize diligent and exploitation need to be transferred, while other dimensions of entrepreneurial spirit have not been unanimously approved.In Chapter 4, we mainly explored the influencing factors of the entrepreneurial tacit knowledge intergenerational transfer performance as well as their functional mechanism. Draw on the literatures of influencing factors of knowledge transfer and the influence of family relationships on family business succession process, the influence of family relationships on the entrepreneurial tacit knowledge intergenerational transfer was tested. In our conceptual model, family relationships were measured by two specific variables namely family cohesion and family adaptability, while the intergenerational transfer performance of entrepreneurial tacit knowledge by two dimensions called knowledge ownership obtaining and commitment to the knowledge. However, the first-hand data showed that the variables of family cohesion, knowledge ownership obtaining and commitment to the knowledge can be further broken down, respectively, into another two dimensions: family cohesion by family familiarity and family collectiveness, knowledge ownership obtaining by know-how obtaining and mental models apperceiving, commitment to knowledge by commitment to know-how and commitment to mental models. In this chapter, all of the hypotheses were tested using data collected from successors in 96 Chinese family firms facing succession issues by survey questionnaire. The results show that family familiarity positively influences all of the four dimensions of the intergenerational transfer of entrepreneurial tacit knowledge, family adaptability merely influences the mental mode apperceiving dimension, while family collectiveness completely has no influence on each of the four dimensions. Incumbent-successor relationship has a complete mediating effect on family familiarity and know-how knowledge obtaining dimension, and has an incomplete mediating effect on family familiarity and commitment to know-how dimension. The mediating effects of the variable of family members' mutual acceptance of individual roles on both family familiarity and family adaptability and mental models apperceiving were also supported.In Chapter 5, the intergenerational transfer process of the entrepreneurial network was analyzed. By in-depth interview with 3 incumbents and 11 successors in 13 family firms, we collected abundant data and conducted a structured content analysis. The main findings are as follows: Firstly, the major characteristics of the intergenerational transfer of the entrepreneurial network can be generalized into four aspects: "processness", "guideness", incompletely "copiness", and "reconstructive-ness". Secondly, government, in the eyes of founders and their successors, is the most important external network tie that needs to be transferred, followed by customers, banks and suppliers. While the team composed of core technical staffs and managers, including veterans who have worked with the founder from the start of the firm, is the most important internal network tie that needs to be transferred. Thirdly, for those natural successions, the intergenerational transfer process of the entrepreneurial network can be divided into five distinct but interdependent stages: inculcating concept of guanxi and preparing for the succession; deciphering network structures and clarifying relationships among ties; introducing next-generation into the existing network and sending signals of succession to network players; diminishing founders' involvement and transferring relationships to successors gradually; expanding network scope and reconstructing network structures. Finally, the network ties are gradually transferred from internal ones to external ones. In the transfer process of internal ties, successors often start from departments where they have professional advantages or positions where it is easier to achieve success. While the external ties, start with commercial relationships emphasizing economy, then the social relationships which emphasize renqing.Compare with previous studies, the following aspects are unique points of this research:(1) Identification of the factors influencing family business succession has always been a hot topic in the literature, a number of "mature" variables were repeatedly verified by studies from different countries and regions, meanwhile some "strange" variables have also begun to arouse the scholars' attentions. However, majority of the previous studies were conducted in a precondition that successful succession means the continuity of management and ownership. As there is a lack of systematic identification of succession elements, the influential factors identified remain highly fragmented, making it difficult to draw firm conclusions. This dissertation systematically identified the succession elements on the individual level of entrepreneurs by integrating the normative and empirical analysis processes, which can help to promote the progress of theoretical research of family business succession fundamentally.(2) The intergenerational transfer of entrepreneurial tacit knowledge, which is one of the most important sources of family firms' competitive advantages, is a major challenge facing the family firms' continuity. However, most of the current family business succession studies paid their attentions to the physical capital. In this dissertation, the elements of entrepreneurial tacit knowledge need to be transferred were identified, and the influencing mechanism of family relationships on the entrepreneurial tacit knowledge intergenerational transfer performance was studied through theoretical analysis and empirical testing. This will be helpful to enrich the perspective of family business succession research. Furthermore, variables unique to the field of family business study such as family relationships, family members' commitment to the firm, and mutual acceptance of individual roles, were also investigated, which can help to improve the embarrassed status in family business study of borrowing theoretical framework from other fields. All these will be helpful to accelerate the knowledge accumulation in this field and to impulse the family business succession study from "context" to "content" in certain extent.(3) A broad consensus has emerged among scholars that entrepreneurial networks play a central role in successful firm emergence and growth. So far, social network researchers have been devoting most efforts into such topics as network contents and structures, process of social networking, antecedents and consequences, and the Chinese guanxi researchers have been paying more attention to the description of the situation of guanxi network and the classification and its explanation systems. While there has been relatively little attention devoted to the succession of entrepreneurial network within family firms. Draw on theories of social capital, social network, and guanxi, the dissertation explicitly defined the meanings and characteristics of entrepreneurial network succession, identified the network ties that need to be transferred, and analyzed their intergenerational succession process using data collected from 13 Chinese family firms facing succession issues. The results provide a powerful tool for understanding the nature of entrepreneurial network succession within the family business, and impulse the family business succession study from "incident view" to "process view" in certain extent. The field of family business succession study is still very young in China, and only a few relatively important issues were studied in this dissertation. The improvement of the theoretical research quality and the systematization of the family business succession theory still need more scientific research from a number of different perspectives. In future research, the identification of succession elements at organizational level, the analysis of the relationships between different elements, and the clarification of the means and modes in which the entrepreneurial network is transferred, are all interesting topics that require in-depth study.
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