Succession Issues within Family Enterprises in Transition Economies

In countries with a long history of entrepreneurship and market economy, significant research efforts have been devoted to family business succession. Such studies are rare in former communist countries, mainly because private enterprises were outlawed during the socialist economy era. Considering reports on the importance and complexity of succession issues, and taking into account the ageing of owners-managers of family enterprises, it is expected that an increasing number of family enterprises are going to face succession problems in transition countries in the near future. This paper reports on the rebirth of family enterprises in transition countries, and on results of a survey among 350 Slovenian Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). Family enterprises are still controlled mainly by the founding generation with no succession experiences, no role-models, and almost no possibility of sharing succession experiences with others, since the majority of their colleagues’ owners-managers are the founders (not successors). Besides raising owners-managers’ awareness, also providing information on support available for facilitating business transfers, offering special training programs on business transfers, including succession topics in study programs, special counseling on business transfers, and the creation of a business sellers and buyers database/market place are urgently needed in transition economies.