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Entrepreneurial competences

22 July, 2015 - 14:58

According to the opinion of several authors, succession should not be treated as a threat, but rather be seen as an opportunity to more effectively address fast-changing marketing conditions when an incumbent is replaced with a more capable leader  1 and as a way of enhancing the level of entrepreneurship 2. For this reason, not only the transfer of knowledge between family generations is of importance for the future of a family business (as explained in the next subchapter), but the next generation should also have access “to new bodies of knowledge that are relevant for the future development of firms’ innovation capacity” [ 3, p. 14] in order to avoid the conservatism and closeness often present in older family firms 4.

Based on these cognitions, we argue that entrepreneurial competences of successors are of crucial importance for the smooth and effective realization of succession and for the innovativeness and viability of a family business in the next family generation. According to 5, entrepreneurial competences should be understood as attitudes toward problem solving, entrepreneurship, social relationships, risk, negotiation, and teamwork as well as creativity, working commitment, communication and motivating skills, technical, marketing, and administrative knowledge and competences. Similarly,  6 identified factors leading to innovation at the individual level. The main factors contributing to the formation of successors’ entrepreneurial competences are 7: formal education (i.e., in entrepreneurship), work experiences outside the family firm, and a family context (“familiness”). These factors are explained in the following subsections.