Despite much progress in the field of family business research, there is still no unequivocal quantitative evidence on how many family businesses are generally transferred within the family and how many are sold to non-family members. Accordingly, the purpose of our paper is to overcome this data problems and to try to get a better estimate of these rates. To determine a better estimate of intra-family successions in Germany, we conducted a meta-analysis of 33 samples from 27 studies covering 75,522 firms facing or having already faced a business transfer. Our results indicate that 62 percent of these family firms are (planned to be) transferred to family members. The type of industry strongly determines the mode of succession. However, methodological issues like study quality and sample design also influence estimated succession rates.
External publication | 2021 Internal and external successions in family firms: a meta-analysis
Schlömer-Laufen, N.; Rauch, A. (2022): Internal and external successions in family firms: a meta-analysis, in: Journal of Family Business Management, Vol. 12, No. 1, S. 24-40.