Collaborative innovation (CI) has grown to be a significant source of ongoing competitive advantage for businesses. The second generation of Chinese family businesses participated in management and even took control when the founder generation retired. This paper aims to investigate how CI in family businesses is affected by second-generation succession.
This paper investigated the effect of second-generation succession on CI using data from Chinese-listed family businesses from 2009 to 2022. The authors examined this by using fixed-effects regression following propensity score matching and a number of endogeneity tests.
This paper finds that second-generation succession significantly promotes CI by increasing risk appetite and alleviating managerial myopia. Additionally, second-generation’s experiences working or studying overseas foster CI. Besides, the higher the educational attainment, the stronger the facilitating effect of second-generation succession on the CI level.
Drawing on the imprinting theory, this paper provides a novel and important perspective for CI research, enriches the research literature on second-generation succession and provides managerial insights for the succession and innovation transformation of Chinese family businesses.
