A Sociological Analysis of the Generational Continuity of Family Business Enterprises in Iran (A Case Study of Small and Medium Sized Family Enterprises of Tehran City)

The present research investigates the sociological challenges and barriers of the generational continuity of family business enterprises in Tehran city. It seeks to explore and identify the sociological challenges and barriers faced by these enterprises in the way of their generational transition. Its main strategy is based on a qualitative method and the required data are collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews. The target group consists of managers of small and medium sized family enterprises of Tehran city, which twenty-five of them were selected through theoretical sampling method and were interviewed. The criterion for endig the process of data collection has been theoretical saturation. The findings show that these types of enterprises face with five sociological challenges, including intra-organizational barriers, lack of family-based branding, family nuclearism, generational emotional / value differences, and structural / situational generational differences in their process of generational transition. Those enterprises which failed to find a solution to overcome these challenges will face problem in their process of generational transition or even could not transfer at all.