A successor’s preparation should not be limited to knowledge transfer between the founder and the successor (although it is also very important). Successors should also be exposed to a wide range of experiences, meaning that “a junior entrepreneur should not only be socialized in the existing context of interactions, he/she should be also familiarized with other contexts” [ 1, p. 14]. Working outside a family firm provides successors with “a more detached perspective over how to run and how to introduce changes and innovation in the business” [ 2, p. 447]. Experiences gained in this way enable successors to access “new bodies of knowledge that are relevant for the future development of firms’ innovation capacity” [ 3, p. 14]; they also help successors replenish, increase, and upgrade the knowledge basis 4. The right combination of internal and external training experiences are important for acquiring technical and managerial knowledge and leadership abilities 5 that play a crucial role in creativity and innovation 6. This is of special importance as research findings indicate that family firms tend to become more conservative and less innovative over time 7, 8.
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