Succession in Hungarian Family Firms

Abstract

Between 2019 and 2021, the Center of Family Business conducted a comprehensive research about the characteristics of succession in family businesses in Hungary, with the support of the Horváth Péter Foundation. The primary objective of the research was to identify the factors that help and the factors that set back the transfer of a company within the family, but it also gives a general picture about the succession situation in Hungarian family businesses. Succession is one of the most investigated topics of international and Hungarian family business research. In addition, following the research work of recent decades, the less explored parts of the process have also been identified. Consequently, building on the work completed so far by Hungarian and international researchers, and starting from that basis, the project focused on these unknown or less known parts: the early phase of the succession process, the processes of making decisions on successors and becoming a successor within company and family relations, and on the development of family relations and the personal relationship of the predecessor and the successor during succession, and how this impacted the operation and the succession of the company.