Intra-family succession is the transfer of management, leadership and/or control of the business from one family member to another, and has been a core topic in family business research (Debicki, Matherne, Kellermanns, and Chrisman, 2009). Family firm researchers have suggested that family firms have a strong desire toward economic and non-economic goals (Kotlar and De Massis, 2013). However, how these goals fit into the strategic management decision of intra-family succession has not been explored by researchers (Chrisman, Kellermanns, Chan, and Liano, 2010). The purpose of this study is to identify and explain the importance of the goals that small private family firms expect to achieve through intra-family succession that cannot be achieved through non-family succession as “success in strategic management, including the management of intra-family succession, must be measured in terms of goal achievement” (De Massis, Sharma, Chua, and Chrisman, 2012, p. 30). To examine why intra-family succession goals (IFSGs) are important, this study relies on the psychological personality constructs of generativity (concern for guiding and establishing the next generation) and narcissism (an individual’s self-assurance, self-esteem and satisfaction with oneself). The respondents of this study are those family members who make up the dominant coalition (founders, incumbents, and potential successors) of the family firm. Only those firms where the family has the ability to influence firm behavior, and the intention (willingness) for intra-family succession, are included in this study. Qualitative data was collected to identify IFSGs, and these IFSGs are used in the development of the structured questionnaire. Fourteen IFSGs were identified from the qualitative phase of the study. The data collected from the structured questionnaire was subject to various statistical methods. The results suggest that the dominant coalition of small private family firms considered each IFSG as important, and that generativity and narcissism partially explain why these goals are important. The findings suggest that gender and the individual’s role within the dominant coalition influence the hypothesized relationship between IFSGs and generativity, and the IFSG of legacy and narcissism. This research provides several analytical, methodological and theoretical contributions and paves the way for further theoretical and empirical enquiry into intra-family succession of small private family firms.

Bildung (in Swedish bildning), has historical relevance for the Swedish education system and remains a crucial element of the Swedish school curriculum today. Significantly, economic goals also inform the content and form of the curriculum with research findings suggesting that these goals dominate over, or marginalise the curriculum’s humanistic or Bildung goals. Since evidence suggests that both Bildung and Bildung-related capacities may have crucial importance in terms of the level of meaningfulness individuals experience in relation to the knowledge they learn and the contribution they are able to make in the promotion of healthy democratic societies, such a marginalisation may represent a significant risk to pupil’s (and society’s) health. A question of relevance to educational research therefore is in what aspect, if any, do economic goals, as manifested within the Swedish school education system, marginalise the curriculum’s humanistic or Bildung goals in gymnasium school teaching? Three chemistry teachers were recruited from gymnasium schools in Southern Sweden and interviewed using a semi-structured interview developed by the author. Developed in two parts, the interview sought first to garner teacher’s vision for their teaching. The second part sought to garner information related to the choices teachers make in order to realise their vision for their teaching. In total six unique theoretical perspectives related to ‘Bildung’ and two perspectives related to ‘an economically-driven view of education’ were used to identify content in the interview transcripts that was consistent with these two themes. The incidence of and relationship between the themes was then evaluated for all three transcripts. Common trends amongst the three interviews were also identified. Results. The study’s results show that economic goals in the form of external contextual factors impact the working realities of all three participating teachers so that Bildung-related dimensions found in their respective visions for their teaching become marginalised. In addition, ‘implicit’ factors, that is, factors particular to the teachers themselves that are outside of their awareness, marginalise Bildung by limiting teacher’s potential for engagement in a Bildung-related didactic praxis. The major implication of this work is that this result represents a call for higher educational institutions to more deliberately foster a Bildung-related didactic praxis (a Bildung-Didaktik) in trainee chemistry teachers, something which in our view is most powerfully achieved through teacher training itself being grounded upon a Bildung-related didactic praxis or Bildung-Didaktik.

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