Abstract
The focus on continuity appears to be one of the key drivers behind the success of family firms. If familiness can be transferred from one generation to another, this legacy may well be the core of the family firm concept. An important requirement for achieving this is the tacit knowledge transfer between successor and incumbent. The aim of this paper is to increase the understanding of how knowledge transfer influences post-succession performance. In May 2008, a survey was conducted with 135 Dutch family firms which had all recently completed a succession process. The analysis of the data leads to some tentative conclusions concerning the positive effect of a family member as a successor and the importance of a smooth transfer of the tacit knowledge of a firm. Copyright © 2011 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.