Beyond entrepreneurial failure: Framing failure in the context of family business succession

Abstract

Entrepreneurial failure in the business creation context has received increasing attention over the past 2 decades. However, family business succession failure remains largely unexplored. Accordingly, the aim of this research is to understand the meaning of failure during family succession by proposing a typology of failure adapted to this context. A longitudinal qualitative study was conducted over six years with seven Tunisian family businesses, involving 54 interviews, mainly with their incumbent and successor. The main results highlight diverse perceptions of failure among successors, incumbents and other stakeholders. The findings also demonstrate that the family dimension must be considered to better understand business succession failure.