Second Generation Growth Experience,Strategic Alignment And Corporate Growth Of Family Businesses

Family enterprises play an indispensable role in promoting financing,driving employment and stimulating entrepreneurial vitality,and are of great significance to the high-quality development of China’s economy.At present,China’s family enterprises are generally facing the double pressure of inter-generational inheritance and transformation and upgrading.The succession of the second generation of the family will cause changes in the internal environment of the enterprise,and strategic adjustment of the enterprise is an important means to create competitive advantages and smoothly achieve the handover.Therefore,in this context,it is important to explore the relationship between the growth experience of the second generation of the family,strategic adjustment and corporate growth to promote the sustainable development of family enterprises.Based on the branding theory and higher order theory,and taking into account the reality of Chinese family firms,this paper divides the growth experience of the second generation of the family into three dimensions: childhood,schooling,and working years.In addition,using hand-collected unbalanced panel data from 2004 to 2020,this paper examines the impact of second-generation growth experiences on family firm growth through a random effects estimation model and further tests the role of strategic alignment and managerial autonomy in this context separately.The research results show that:(1)Second-generation upbringing has a significant impact on the growth of family businesses,especially the contribution of witnessing the entrepreneurial experience of fathers during childhood is significant.Compared to other regions,South China and North China are more innovative and dynamic,and the second-generation growth experience of family businesses has a more significant effect on business growth.(2)Corporate strategy alignment mediates the relationship between the second-generation’s growth experience and corporate growth.The second generation of the family’s childhood witnessed their father’s entrepreneurial experience to improve business growth through more conservative strategic adjustments and work experience outside of the family business play a fully intermediary role by improving strategic alignment and indirectly contributing to business growth.(3)Management autonomy plays a moderating role between strategic alignment and corporate growth.Among them,firm size and firm age negatively moderate the relationship between strategic alignment and firm growth,and financial redundancy positively moderates the relationship between strategic alignment and firm growth.These findings suggest that family companies should strengthen the environment for the formation of the imprint of the second generation’s growth experience and develop a detailed succession development plan.At the same time,matching the cognitive and competence brand of the second generation promotes the appropriate adjustment of corporate strategy,improves the internal governance of the company,and ensures a smooth handover and healthy growth of the family business.This paper clarifies the influence of the growth experiences of the second generation on the growth of the company from the perspective of the early growth experiences of managers,and reveals the mediating and regulating roles played by strategic adjustment and management autonomy respectively,which enriches and expands the study of the growth mechanism of family companies to a certain extent.At the same time,the findings of this paper provide a reference basis for family firms to create a favorable growth environment for nurturing second-generation successors,which is of great value in promoting the smooth succession and sustainable growth of family firms.