Study on the effect of incumbent - successor fit on succession patterns

China started its trial of market economy in 1978. During this period of time, family businesses have prospered and made great progress in biting off the market share formerly monopolized by state-owned enterprises. However, after 30 years, many first generation entrepreneurs of family businesses are facing the reality of passing their control of firms to the second generation. As the old Chinese idiom goes, it´s easy for the farther to found a business but hard for his son to keep it. Unwise choice of successors often causes severe damage and sometimes closedown of a family business. Therefore, research of succession in Chinese family businesses has gained tremendous momentum in the past few years.