Introduction

The topic of succession in family enterprises is the most popular in the scientific literature devoted to the functioning and management of these entities. This popularity results from the key importance of planning and implementing intergenerational management and ownership transfer for business growth and development over a long period of time, for generating and using intangible assets, the carrier of which is the owner family, in the process of building and increasing competitive advantage. Unfortunately, the succession of management is a complex, multi-stage, multidimensional process in the vast majority of cases resulting in failure. A share of 30% of family businesses make it through the second generation, 10–15% through the third, and 3–5% through the fourth. For natural and pragmatic reasons scientists, consultants and practitioners are looking for solutions, strategies or models that will increase the probability of success in this area and thus the probability of continuity of management, progress in the scope of growth, development and efficiency of family entities.

In his own search, the author has already presented the anthropological concept of family structure in order to explain the causes and potential sources of failures in planning and succession in family enterprises.