Research On Performance Of Family Business Based On Imprinting Theory ——A Case Study Of Shandong WeiDa Group

The research on family business has always been the hot topic of the worldwide economic development history.In the history of China’s private economy,family enterprises also made many significant credits to China’s economic growth.Since China began to carry out Reform and Opening up policy,many founders of the first generation of family businesses rode with the tide of era and seized the opportunities,successfully started and developed their own businesses.But with decades in power,they also began to face age crisis.Cultivating the second-generation successor to take over the family business is the preferred way of succession for the first generation of entrepreneurs.Since the new century dawned,more and more family businesses have begun to make plans for the family succession.However,the succession of family businesses is not just a simple matter of delegating power to the next generation.According to a survey,only 20%of family businesses in China have made an overall layout of family succession,and the failures of family business succession due to their hasty plan are quite common.So,it is particularly important to sort out the path and summarize the experience of family enterprises that successfully carry out family succession.Based on this,scholars have carried out many studies on the family succession of family businesses.Based on decades of research,scholars believe that all family members of a family business need to work together if the family successors want to successfully complete the family succession and make the family business sustainable.Besides paying attention to the education and grass-roots experience of the second generation since their childhood,first-generation family members also need to offer help for the second generation to enter the management level of the family business,such as introducing others or assisting them personally to help them gain vital management experience.However,from a microcosmic perspective,there are still insufficient researches on the influences of the imprints from the environment and other individuals on the second-generation successors and their effects on the family succession.Imprinting theory comes from the field of biology.Imprinting process generally refers to the process in which animals are affected by various internal and external imprinting sources in their early life,thus changing their biological behavior.The characteristics of family enterprises are the combination of family and enterprise.The concept of family provides a hotbed for the heirs of the second generation to receive the imprints in the early stage.Therefore,as a special collective,the family succession of family enterprises shows three distinct stages,namely the family immersion stage,the family separation stage and the succession sensitive stage.These three stages inherit and complement each other,and play an indelible role in the growth of the second generation of successors.Therefore,the research on the family succession path and performance of family enterprises from the perspective of imprinting theory is of great significance to the successful succession of family enterprises.Based on the above analysis of theories and practices,this study mainly focused on the theory of imprinting,trying to sort out and summarize the theories of imprinting and family succession of family business,Taking Shandong Weida Group,a family enterprise that has completed the succession and has enough follow-up observation period,as the case study object,this paper explores each sensitive period in the family succession path using the imprinting theory,and analyzes the enterprise performance after completing the family succession.The main analysis methods adopted in this paper include literature review of imprinting theory and other relevant theories,case study of the case company selected in this paper and comparison of performance analysis in different periods.Based on the case company Shandong Weida Group’s family succession,this paper divides the succession of Shandong Weida Group by stages according to the family succession path under the imprinting theory,and specifically analyzes the main components of the imprinting sources in each stage and how the focus subject（the object being imprinted）receives the influence of imprints.And this paper believes that the succession of leadership does not mean that the succession has been successfully accomplished.After Shandong Weida Group completed its family succession in 2013,this paper made a long-term track of its subsequent corporate strategic changes and corporate performance,and conducted a comparative analysis of its strategic change and economic performance respectively,and specifically compared the changes of relevant indicators before and after the succession.Through the family succession path and performance research from the perspective of imprinting theory,this paper draws relevant conclusions and enlightenment.In order to inherit and continue the family business smoothly,the founders of the first generation need to be forward-looking and prepare for the future.In the growth period of the second generation of heirs,their paternal generation should pay attention to the infiltration of family culture,the study of family spirit and the understanding of family business.Secondly,we should pay attention to academic education and grassroots training,so that the second generation of heirs could accept social discipline and learn more professional and management knowledge and skills;Finally,it is necessary to pay attention to the smoothness and stability of the succession process.If the successors take the initiative to engage themselves to family business,the leadership transfer from the first generation to the second generation will be easier,and it would help the family business to smooth the family succession process and achieve the vision of sustainable development.