The Success of Transition Process: Founder vs. Successor Perspective – Case of Croatia

Family business is the most common form of business worldwide. Despite the acknowledged importance of family business in the Croatian economy, there are still no formal and reliable statistics on the national level available regarding the prevalence and impact of this ownership structure. However, it is assumed that family businesses in Croatia employ over half of the total workforce and that the majority of small companies are family-owned. Most of the family-owned companies are still first-generation family firms, owned and managed by the founders but transition processes are taking root. Since the very survival of a family business, continuity, and success depend on the transition process, a substantial body of literature focuses on the transition process and factors that will facilitate a successful transition. Therefore, this paper aims to contribute to the existing body of literature by providing a deeper understanding of the transition process specificities in Croatian family-owned companies. In this paper, we analyze differences in the perception of factors relevant to the success of the transition process on the convenience sample of Croatian family-owned companies. The sample included first-generation and second-generation owners and a questionnaire was used as the primary data collection instrument. The results of the statistical analysis show that there are significant differences in the perception of factors relevant to the success of the transition process from the founders' and successors' point of view.