The influence of the banking crisis on the lending behaviour of banks towards family business succession.

The topic family business succession has received a great amount of attention from academic researchers and business practitioners. However most of the research has focused on studying the personal factors, succession process factors, and firm factors that influence family business succession. There is limited information available about the way family business succession is financed and how the crisis of 2008 affected this financing process. This research builds on theories discussed by academics to study the financial decision making process of family firms. Thereafter, the influence of the banking crisis on the lending behaviour of banks toward family business succession is studied. This is done by administering questionnaires and in-depth interviews among three financial service providers and four family firms.