Family business exposure and succession intention: the role of entrepreneurial self-efficacy and business performance

Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship. 2025. Vol. 37. No. 5. P. 778–807.

Shirokova G., Bodolica V., Jaroslav Morozov, Tatiana Mikhailova

Understanding the next generation’s aspirations to inherit their parents’ business is critically important for securing intrafamily succession and longevity of the family business. Using a large dataset of 42,863 university students from 48 countries, we examine how the entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) of youth moderates the relationship between family business exposure and succession intention. Our results indicate that a greater ESE enhances the influence of family business exposure on succession intention, while the effect of ESE is further moderated by family business performance, implying that this effect is greater in more (rather than less) successful family firms. By underscoring the role of both young individuals’ early engagement in the business and family business success, this study provides valuable implications for family firm leaders and the next generation that may assist in the design of more comprehensive policies for encouraging succession within the family.

Keywords: theory of planned behavior, GUESSS, family business exposure, succession intention, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, family embeddedness perspective