Questions and Problems of the Succession of Generations within Family Owned Businesses

Nábrádi, András – Bárány, László – Tobak, Júlia

Keywords: family business, ownership, social exchange, succession, ladder of succession, Q1, R2

The study focuses on the questions and problems of the succession of generations concerning family-owned agricultural enterprises. On a world scale most of the familyrun businesses do not survive the first generation, thus succession has become the most important problem. This is the reason why nowadays the succession of generations has become the central issue of several research projects in Hungary. It has become more topical after the political transition of the 1990s because since then most founders of family businesses have reached retirement age and have to pass the baton to the next generation.
This topic is particularly important because - due to the well-known reasons of the period before the political transition - there is little or no Hungarian experience and information about succession. The study is mainly based on international literature. The aim is to present the main issues and the key elements of succession of generations concentrating on the practical terms.
In the diagnostic phase of the research the succession processes, their methods and the possibility of processes especially characteristic of agricultural economics are presented with the help of secondary data, with the application of contemporary research results and a methodological approach. The study includes the experience and opinion of a Hungarian family entrepreneur who forces through a succession of generation.
The conclusion of the diagnostic phase of our work is that there are several foreign models available, confirmed by theoretical and practical experiences, and it would be reasonable to adapt them to the Hungarian conditions. It would be necessary because there is not much national experience, applied methods and database to use. In our opinion the described models and methods could be exploited in the Hungarian practice.

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