Family business succession and social capital: next generation family business management in Southern Vietnam

Social capital underpins institutional and in turn a country’s economic development. Given that families are social capital incubators, and their businesses are highly influential in developing economies, it is appropriate to investigate how family businesses develop and manage social capital resources through the important process of succession from one generation to the next. This qualitative thesis explores the Vietnamese family business experience and behaviour throughout intergenerational succession through the lens of social capital theory. It employs 24 in-depth semi-structured interviews to identify how the next generation of family business leaders in southern Vietnam are modifying social capital to cope with Vietnam’s ongoing economic transition post Doi Moi in 1986. These findings demonstrate the fragility of social capital through family business succession and the potential loss of competitive and cooperative resources. This thesis extends our understanding of the effect that succession has on the various social capital dimensions identifying informal institutions and logic that underpinned survival through economic transition as significant impediments to relationship and resource transfer through succession.