Institutional Influences on Succession Intentions: A Welfare Model Analysis

International research shows that entrepreneurial intentions (EI) largely depend on the institutional context. Family business research indicates that succession intentions (SI) similarly vary among countries but explanations up to now are mainly based on cultural differences. Especially in Nordic welfare countries entrepreneurial but also succession intention are lower than in countries with other welfare models. Therefore we investigate how SI differs in 17 countries with regards to the institutional context by combining the Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students’ Survey (GUESSS) and the Comparative Welfare Entitlements Dataset (CWED). With this study we fill a research gap by analyzing the influence of social policy measured by the total generosity index on SI of students. The regression results show that SI among other variables depends on the welfare model in certain institutional contexts of a country. In particular we found that country policies based on high social protection show lower SI among students. Future research paths and implications for policy makers how to deal with low SI will be derived.