Publication Type

PhD Dissertation

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

6-2025

Abstract

Amidst the deepening of economic globalization, countries around the world are being progressively steered toward paths of innovative development, laying a solid foundation for enhancing national comprehensive strength and elevating international standing. Especially after the implementation of the reform and opening-up policy in our country, technological innovation has become the main direction of our transformation. According to the requirements of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, innovation-driven development will be fully applied to the country's development, creating favorable conditions for the realization of strategic development goals. National development and social progress are directly linked to corporate innovation, which also serves as an effective pathway for enterprises to gain a competitive position. In this process, the participation of both state-owned and private enterprises plays a significant role in implementing national development strategies. In fact, family-owned businesses account for 85% of China's private enterprises, highlighting that innovation within family firms is crucial to achieving overall innovation in the private sector. Intergenerational succession in family businesses is a key issue for sustainable development. It involves the continuity of business wealth, resources, and power, making the selection of successors a particularly cautious process. As a dynamic transfer of corporate authority, the smooth completion of intergenerational succession is essential to ensuring the long-term prosperity of family enterprises.

To address the aforementioned issues, this study synthesizes and analyzes existing research findings, further elaborating on and interpreting the relevant concepts and theories. Secondly, a questionnaire survey is conducted to collect data from 503 family

businesses in Wenzhou. The collected data are processed and analyzed using SPSS software. A multiple regression analysis is employed to empirically examine the impact of succession models in family firms on their innovation investment behavior. Additionally, this study tests the moderating effects of successor social capital, successor authority, and successor technical work experience in this relationship. Finally, the empirical results are discussed, and corresponding managerial implications are proposed. The main conclusions of this study are as follows:

  • Under the internal succession model involving second-generation family members, family firms tend to exhibit reduced levels of innovation investment. When professional managers are hired externally, innovation investment increases. However, when professional managers are promoted internally, innovation investment decreases. Heterogeneity studies show that the second-generation family inheritance model has a significant reducing effect on the innovation investment behavior of growth enterprises and mature enterprises. However, in comparison, the inhibitory effect on mature enterprises is slightly lower than that on growth enterprises.The external hiring of professional managers significantly enhances innovation investment across family firms, with a relatively weaker positive impact on mature firms compared to growth firms. Internal promotion of professional managers significantly suppresses innovation investment in family firms, though the negative effect is somewhat less pronounced in mature firms than in growth firms. (2) Successor social capital (comprising both internal and external social capital) plays a moderating role between intergenerational succession models and innovation investment behavior in family businesses. Specifically, both internal and external dimensions of successor social capital demonstrate significant moderating effects in the relationship between intergenerational succession models and innovation output. (3) Successor authority also serves as a key moderator in the relationship between intergenerational succession models and corporate innovation investment behavior. More precisely, the moderating effect of the successor authority between the intergenerational succession models of family
  • businesses and the enterprise innovation investment behavior is established. Under the same succession model, higher levels of successor authority correlate with greater levels of innovation investment behavior. (4) Successor technical work experience demonstrates a higher effect size in the path from “intergenerational succession model of family businesses - innovation investment behavior” in the high-moderation group compared to the low-moderation and cross groups. This confirms the significant positive moderating role of successor authority in this pathway. Holding the succession model constant, stronger technical work experience of the successor is associated with higher levels of innovation investment behavior. (5) Based on the results of empirical findings, this study believes that to improve the level of innovation investment behavior of family businesses under different intergenerational succession models, enterprises should choose a reasonable succession model, improve the succession process, and successors should pay attention to building their own authority to achieve enterprise innovation.

Keywords

family business, intergenerational succession model, innovation investment behavior, successor authority

Degree Awarded

Doctor of Business Administration (Accounting and Finance)

Discipline

Accounting | Asian Studies

Supervisor(s)

CHEN, Xia

First Page

1

Last Page

201

Publisher

Singapore Management University

City or Country

Singapore

Copyright Owner and License

Author

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