Purpose

This article examines the relationship between financial risk management and succession planning in family businesses. Motivated by the Theory of Planned Behaviour, we hypothesize that the use of professional risk management practices is associated with an increased likelihood that businesses adopt professionalized approaches to succession planning. We then investigate if succession planning professionalization is, in turn, positively related to the financial performance of family businesses.

Design/methodology/approach

We apply binary probit and ordered dependent variable regressions to unique data generated from a survey sample of Australian family businesses. To check the robustness of our results to potential endogeneity concerns we apply difference tests to propensity score matched sub-samples from our original cohort of respondents.

Findings

The results show that, in contrast to verbal or absent succession arrangements, formal written succession plans are both positively associated with the use of financial risk management practices and with superior financial performance in family businesses.

Originality/value

Our arguments and findings suggest that active financial risk management provides a platform for planning succession in family businesses, and that this links with improved short-term financial performance. In light of the critical role that succession plays in ensuring long-term business sustainability, our findings provide important and novel insights into the conditions under which family businesses are most likely to use formal professionalized succession planning.

中文翻译：

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家族企业财务风险管理与继任计划之间的关系

目的

本文研究了家族企业中财务风险管理与继任计划之间的关系。受计划行为理论的激励，我们假设使用专业风险管理实践与企业采用专业化方法进行继任计划的可能性增加相关。然后，我们调查继任计划专业化是否反过来与家族企业的财务绩效呈正相关。

设计/方法/方法

我们将二元概率和有序因变量回归应用于从澳大利亚家族企业的调查样本中生成的独特数据。为了检查我们的结果对潜在的内生性问题的稳健性，我们对来自原始受访者群体的倾向得分匹配的子样本进行了差异测试。

发现

结果表明，与口头或无人接班安排相比，正式的书面接班计划既与财务风险管理惯例的使用以及家族企业的出色财务业绩成正相关。

创意/价值

我们的论点和调查结果表明，积极的财务风险管理为家族企业的继任规划提供了一个平台，并将其与短期财务绩效的改善联系在一起。考虑到继任在确保长期业务可持续性方面所起的关键作用，我们的发现为家族企业最有可能使用正式的专业化继任计划的条件提供了重要而新颖的见解。