Purpose

Family farms, in which business and family life are intricately interwoven, offer an interesting context for better understanding the interdependence between the family and business system. Many family farms struggle to survive, and the succession process is a key period in which the low returns on investment become evident but also the emotional attachment of the family to the farm and the willingness to transfer the business to the next generation. We take the perspective of non-succeeding siblings since they are crucial for a successful succession but their role and position in this process is far from clear. This study will help to increase our knowledge of how fairness is perceived by non-successors and of the impact of perceived (in)justice on the family business system.

Design/methodology/approach

To analyze the effect on sibling relationships of an unequal outcome of the succession process, we choose the family farm context. We used interview data from multiple family members from several family farms in the Netherlands in different stages of succession. We utilized a framework based on justice theory to analyze perceptions of fairness among non-succeeding siblings. The central research question for this study is as follows: How do non-succeeding siblings perceive justice with regard to family firm succession?

Findings

The acceptance of the outcomes of the succession process by non-succeeding siblings is influenced by their perception of the fairness of the process itself and decisions made by the incumbent and successor with regard to these outcomes. It seems that stakeholders who occupy multiple roles with conflicting justice perspectives handle these contradictions with the help of an overarching goal—in this study, preserving the continuity of the family farm—and by prioritizing and adjusting the justice perspectives accordingly. The findings further show that both distributive justice and procedural justice are important and interact with each other.

Originality/value

Our study contributes to the literature by applying the theoretical framework of distributive and procedural justice to the context of family farm succession. This helps us to understand the position of non-succeeding siblings and their role and position in the succession process, which is important because sibling relationships have a significant impact on family harmony, with potential consequences for the business as well.

中文翻译：

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别往心里放？家族企业中不成功的兄弟姐妹及其对正义的看法

目的

商业和家庭生活错综复杂的家庭农场为更好地理解家庭与商业系统之间的相互依存关系提供了一个有趣的环境。许多家庭农场都在为生存而挣扎，继任过程是关键时期，在这段时期内投资回报率很低，但家庭对农场的情感依恋以及将业务转移给下一代的意愿也很重要。我们采用不成功的兄弟姐妹的观点，因为它们对于成功的继任至关重要，但在这一过程中的角色和地位还很遥远。这项研究将有助于增加我们对非继承人如​​何看待公平以及对正义（正义）对家族企业系统的影响的了解。

设计/方法/方法

为了分析继承过程中不平等结果对兄弟姐妹关系的影响，我们选择了家庭农场的环境。我们使用了来自荷兰多个农场不同继承阶段的多个家庭成员的访谈数据。我们利用基于正义理论的框架来分析非成功兄弟姐妹之间的公平感。这项研究的中心研究问题如下：不成功的兄弟姐妹如何看待家族企业继承的正义？

发现

不成功的兄弟姐妹对继承过程结果的接受程度受其对过程本身公平性的感知以及在位者和继任者就这些结果所做出的决定的影响。看起来，在具有不同司法观点的多重角色中的利益相关者可以通过一个总体目标（在本研究中，保持家庭农场的连续性）并相应地优先考虑和调整司法观点来处理这些矛盾。研究结果进一步表明，分配正义和程序正义都很重要，并且相互影响。

创意/价值

我们的研究通过将分配和程序正义的理论框架应用于家庭农场继承的背景，为文献做出了贡献。这有助于我们了解不成功的兄弟姐妹的位置及其在继任过程中的角色和地位，这很重要，因为兄弟姐妹的关系对家庭和睦有重要影响，对企业也有潜在的影响。