Co-Creation in Intergenerational Entrepreneurial Family Businesses

Abstract

This thesis addresses the issue of entrepreneurial family business succession, through the lens of co-creation. Co-creation is generally defined as the value-adding relationship between customers and business (Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2002), but this thesis aims to show that it has a broader application than that, and it offers a different perspective of intergenerational entrepreneurial family firms. The literature shows that there is not adequate research into the links between entrepreneurship, family business (Salvato, 2004; Aldrich & Cliff, 2003), and succession, even though succession is thought to be one of the biggest challenges that SME family businesses face (Beckhard & Dyer, 1983). By offering a different way of studying entrepreneurial family businesses facing succession, this thesis aims to contribute to the field by advocating a different way of considering that gap, and approach that encourages predecessor and successor to co-create a new path for the business, together. In this, the tradition sense of ‘stepping into the shoes’ of the predecessor is overthrown by Handler’s (1990) perspective of mutual adjustment by both the successor and the predecessor. The research uses a case study research design, focusing on two New Zealand SMEs, which both have the first generation and the second generation involved with the business. In both cases, the second generation are in the controlling position of CEO, or managing directors. The data was collected through interviews with each generation in each firm, regarding how the work together, and how they approach succession. The findings of the data collection reveal that communication, planning, external advice, and entrepreneurial orientation, are all considered to be important contributors to enabling the firms to overcome succession barriers. This thesis therefore reveals how communication, planning, external advice, and entrepreneurial orientation, aid co-creation, and encourage firms to work together, and trust each other, which is vital when facing issues such as succession. Thus, it advocates a co-creation approach to intergenerational entrepreneurial family businesses, as it views succession as a mutual role adjustment process, which enables successor and predecessor to work together, find common ground, and establish a vision for the future of the business which they can both work towards.