The SEW, or Socioemotional Wealth, refers to the emotional value that family owners attach to their business, (way beyond the stictly economic objectives) (Socioemotional Wealth and Business Risks in Family-Controlled Firms: Evidence from Spanish Olive Oil Mills, 2007). It often include the feeling of identity linked to the company, the complete familly control, and the generational transmission through succession, as a source of identity, a pride, and a very intimate bond to the professional activity.
For some cases like mine, what I believe to be a paradoxe in this matter, is the succession definition in family businesses, which is often understood as "the transfer of ownership and management of the family business to the next generation" (Al Sulaiman et al., 2023). Because how can one transfer his intimately dearly cherished identity to someone else ?
If the someone else is a son, it gets easier, as gen 2 situations often shows, but for a gen 3 case, everyone has sons, so its gets harder, and the paradoxe consequently takes place.
Having said that, the company may find great taboo on succession planning as, a personal favorite, a most competent, an elder, or even a more passionate pretendant, is_for conflicts of interests reasons_never enough to break silence.
Company remains never to sell, and the silence ever still.
Or are we yet too young to understand ? A question worth asking, for the later the outcome the harder the responsibilty.
Al Sulaiman, G. et al. (2023) Succession planning in family businesses: From common to successful practices. KPMG Professional Services. https://assets.kpmg.com/content/dam/kpmg/sa/pdf/2023/fb-succession-eng-v16-spread.pdf.
(PDF) Socioemotional Wealth and Business Risks in Family-Controlled Firms: Evidence from Spanish Olive Oil Mills (2007). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279900703_Socioemotional_Wealth_and_Business_Risks_in_Family-Controlled_Firms_Evidence_from_Spanish_Olive_Oil_Mills.