Succession during Economical Transition Period: An Empirical Study in Zhejiang Province of China

Successful intergenerational succession is the key to continuous development of family businesses. To study family business succession, a total of 412 family businesses in Zhejiang province have been investigated. According to the survey data, it can be found that family businesses show several characteristics: Educational levels of family business owners have significantly improve; power transfer of family enterprises among generations will peak in the next 5th or 10th years, etc. With regard to factors influencing successful handover of family businesses, most business owners consider qualifications of successors as the key. Besides, they highlight the importance of changing management methods in different times. To promote successful succession and sustainable development of family businesses, it is necessary to adopt some measures such as building new management teams in the family business, establish credit evaluation mechanism for enterprises and professional managers, finish holistic inheritance of family business property through “monetary value distribution method”, impose laws and regulations on estate tax; and enhancing the comprehensive competitiveness of successors.