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.