The Strategic Phase of The Generational Turnover in Family Businesses: an Analysis Model Based on the Management of the Intellectual Capital

The proposed work aims to take part in the outstanding theorical and empirical debate on the family businesses’ need to formulate a business strategy that will be able to preserve the enterprise continuity in the market. With regard to this, the management of the generational turnover plays a crucial rôle in the enterprise life because it can correspond to a critical phase as well to an opportunity for the growth of the enterprise. This because, at the moment of generational turnover, the business culture and the knowledge heritage of the enterprise accrued during the time can be dissolved or they can be retained and increased in value. The enterprise “tradition”, having reference to the entrepreneur, can become a competitive advantage for the enterprise only if the intellectual capital is managed and transferred by the entrepreneur and the successor is able to make a change in strategy in consideration of the present and perspective market demands. In particular, this study wants to propose a conceptual model for the valuation of generational turnover in the family businesses with the aim to emphasize the potential relationships between “traditional” and “innovative” factors in order to value the probability of success in the generational turnover. It has to be considered that the contrast between the conservative force of the tradition and of the enterprise culture and the innovative force of change represents one of the major obstacles from which the survival of the enterprise in the future depends. The approach used in the paper has reference to a theory of first approximation that allows to have a general summary useful to conduct the research on the subject, but it doesn’t make possible to draw final conclusions. This study has the character of investigate the family businesses in order to increase the understanding of a phenomenon for which doesn’t exist general theories owing to the complexity and the variableness in the forms of expression. The use of the model in some case studies has also the purpose to disclose potential improvements and further operating and scientific developments