Passing the Torch Without Losing the Flame: Knowledge Continuity, Tacit Knowledge Transfer, and Succession Dynamics in Family Business

Abstract

Family businesses constitute the dominant form of business organisation globally, yet their most persistent vulnerability is the intergenerational transfer of leadership and knowledge. This study synthesises scholarship on family business succession, focusing on tacit knowledge transfer: the deeply embedded, experiential know-how underpinning competitive advantage, relational legitimacy, and cultural identity. Drawing on the resource-based view, socioemotional wealth (SEW), social capital, dynamic capability, and institutional theory, the study identifies five interdependent elements that must be carried forward during succession and proposes an integrated cyclical enabling framework for sustaining them. The synthesis finds that structured mentorship combined with succession narratives is the most consistently supported enabling mechanism, and that digital transformation, gender, and cultural context are structural moderators determining whether succession is experienced as continuity or disruption. This study contributes by integrating five fragmented theoretical perspectives into a single continuity framework, reframing knowledge loss as actively manageable elements rather than passive risks, and translating this synthesis into evidence-based recommendations for practitioners.