An Exploration Study On Successor Identity Structure And Construction Process Of Next Generation Of Family Business

China will experience a historical peak of intergeneration succession among family businesses. However, both practitioners and researchers are concerned about the next generation’s extremely low willingness to take over the business. What is worse, even among those who are willing to take over family business, low involvement to and deviant behavior toward family business still exist, which will likely result in a failed succession process or to a decline of business performance after succession. Driven by this practical phenomenon, this research aims to seek the root factor determining next generation’s attitude and behavior toward succession and the relevant functioning mechanisms. Identity theory, which argues that identity, provides fundamental reference framework for individual’s intention and behavior, will serve as theoretical foundation of this research. We propose that desirable attitude and behavior regarding succession among next generation originates in their "successor identity of family business (SI-FB)", which is a likely part of next generation’s comprehensive individual identity.By sticking closely to the current social and internal context in which family businesses are embedded, this research will contribute to the understanding of the process how family business next generation construct their individual identity, the structure and contents of SI-FB, and the construction mechanism. By digging 19 family businesses children growing up stories, we compare the similarities and differences of their identity characteristics, and extract the ideal structure and contents of SI-FB.and base on that, using historical analysis to build the construction mechanism of SI-FB. Our approach will employ a mix of grounded theory method and critical incident analysis. Specifically, our research goals are as follows: (1) with grounded theory method, we explore the process in which next generation construct their individual identity and identify the contents arid structure of SI-FB. (2) Based on the above study and a review of the literature, we identify antecedents of the construction process of SI-FB.Potential contributions include:a systematic framework based on identity theory to understand the next generation’s psychological relation with the family business and its consequence; enrich people’s understanding on how nested and interacting social entities influence in individual identity construction; in practical level, provide guidance for family business owner to influence children’s intention and behavior through molding their identity, provide suggestions on how to guide the culture orientation to enhance the next generation’s optimal view on taking over family business.