Key factor for the intergenerational continuity of family businesses

As a business family grows, the number of shareholders who are neither active in a management function in the family business nor have a supervisory role increases. This development leads to a shift in interests away from traditional family entrepreneurship towards a stronger focus on returns - to the detriment of the future viability of the family business. 

WIFU researchers Prof Dr Heiko Kleve, Dr Fabian Simons and PD Dr Tobias Köllner are therefore focusing on an attitude that has developed in many multi-generational business families and which views the company as "fiduciary" property for a limited period of time. This means that the transfer to the next generation is already closely linked to the transfer of ownership. But how can such a "trustee mentality" be successfully re-established among the members of a business family time and again? The new practical guide "Trustee mentality in growing business families - How a transgenerational attitude to property and wealth can be actively established" by the research trio addresses this question. 

The authors vividly explain how a growing business family can respect the interests of its members and at the same time preserve their entrepreneurship across generations. It is crucial to understand the creation and maintenance of a fiduciary mentality as a profound process that must be actively shaped and takes into account four levels: family relationships, emotional ties, personnel structures and financial practices.

"If we assume that transgenerationality is the decisive difference between family businesses and other forms of business, then the fiduciary mentality of the business family is the most important resource for this," says Heiko Kleve. "We can learn how this attitude can be actively created from business families who have maintained this mentality over many generations."

The practical guide described above and other WIFU publications are available free of charge on the WIFU Foundation website (www.wifu.de/bibliothek). For further information, please contact Dr Ruth Orenstrat at ruth.orenstrat@uni-wh.de or +49 2302 926-506.