The Effect of Value Congruence Between Founder and Successor on Successor’s Willingness: The Mediating Role of the Founder–Successor Relationship:

Drawing from social exchange theory, this article explores the founder-successor relationship quality as a mediated pathway in examining the effects of founder-successor value congruence on successor's willingness to take over the business. Based on survey data from 102 founder-successor dyads, polynomial regression analysis shows that when both a founder and a successor have high value congruence in family prosperity, the relationship quality will be enhanced, which leads to higher successor's willingness. When there is value incongruence between a founder and a successor, the successor's family prosperity value has a more important impact on the founder-successor relationship and successor's willingness.