Family business succession in dialogue: The case of differing backgrounds and views

Abstract

This article develops a greater understanding of family business succession as a process taking place within emergent conversations. Based on a real-time qualitative study of an owner family's conversations during succession and Bakhtin's notion of the 'utterance', three dimensions of dialogic transformation are elaborated: the role of differences during conversations, the role of multi-voiced conversations and the role of listening during conversations. When these dimensions are viewed together, they contribute to current family business research by emphasizing the need to better understand the present moment during succession conversations. We are conceptualizing the present moment as a 'living moment', as a reminder of the once-occurring, unique and momentary transformation that can take place between family members in such encounters. Implications for research as well as practice are elaborated upon.