Samenvatting

The process of taking over a business in the agricultural sector is a team process in
which, in addition to the transferor and transferee, the partner(s) and non-acquiring family and
advisors also play an important role. It is a multi-year process in which decisions have to be made
on complex issues. In this paper, we investigate how the decision-making processes in business
takeovers in the agricultural sector take place and how the choices and decisions are influenced by
habits, norms, values and relationships, among other things. We focus on all actors within the
process, such as the transferor, transferee, non-acquiring family members and the informal- and
formal advisors.
Each actor has questions about the individual role in the collective dream of the family business,
which can also form the most important dilemmas. This is where issues such as loss, grant, trust and
loss aversion play a part1.
What is going on within family businesses often remains a black box. Research mainly focuses on
input and output variables, which means that it remains unknown how things work internally within
the family business, at the kitchen table (Strike, 2018).2 The literature on family businesses also pays
little attention to the individual. This is in contrast to psychology.
In this paper, we zoom in on the black box. How does the process work at the kitchen table? What is
the role of all family members, how and what are they influenced by? How are the decisions made?
How do the decision-making and influencing processes work and how do individual family
members influence each other and the advice?
Our research shows that when family relationships are good, there is a better chance that the socialemotional aspects of the business succession are not a bottleneck for a successful business transfer.
Solutions can often be found for the financial, tax and legal aspects, if the social-emotional aspects
are good.