Intergenerational ownership succession: Shifting the focus from outcome measurements to preparatory requirements

• Measuring outcomes is not sufficient to support successful ownership succession.
• Preparatory activities deal with critical succession issues early in the process.
• We combine legal and psychological ownership in our multidisciplinary approach.
• We summarize antecedents and preparatory requirements in an ownership succession model.

This article contributes to the family business succession literature by (1) addressing ownership succession rather than management succession, (2) recommending a combination of legal and psychological perspectives on ownership to advance our understanding and (3) suggesting a preparatory approach to succession. Measuring the success of management succession has mainly been undertaken by assessing outcomes. Learning retrospectively why a succession was (un)successful may deepen our understanding of the process, but it is not particularly helpful to the business in question. We propose an alternative method for ownership succession: a preparatory approach that establishes requirements to fulfill before the succession takes place. These requirements are presented in a model that considers both the legal/financial and the psychological aspects of ownership and are formulated to improve intergenerational ownership succession and the post-succession prosperity of the firm.