478 Int. J. Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Vol. 14, No. 4, 2011 Copyright © 2011 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Securing post-succession continuity in family firms through knowledge transfer Ilse Matser* Windesheim University of Applied Sciences, P.O. Box 10090, 8000 GB, Zwolle, The Netherlands E-mail: i.a.matser@windesheim.nl *Corresponding author Sascha Kraus University of Liechtenstein, Fürst-Franz-Josef-Strasse, FL-9490 Vaduz, Liechtenstein E-mail: sascha.kraus@wu-wien.ac.at Stefan Märk University of Innsbruck, Department for Strategic Management, Marketing and Tourism, Universitätsstrasse 15, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria E-mail: stefan.maerk@uibk.ac.at Abstract: The focus on continuity appears to be one of the key drivers behind the success of family firms. If familiness can be transferred from one generation to another, this legacy may well be the core of the family firm concept. An important requirement for achieving this is the tacit knowledge transfer between successor and incumbent. The aim of this paper is to increase the understanding of how knowledge transfer influences post-succession performance. In May 2008, a survey was conducted with 135 Dutch family firms which had all recently completed a succession process. The analysis of the data leads to some tentative conclusions concerning the positive effect of a family member as a successor and the importance of a smooth transfer of the tacit knowledge of a firm. Keywords: family firms; knowledge management; transfer climate; trans-generational succession. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Matser, I., Kraus, S. and Märk, S. (2011) ‘Securing post-succession continuity in family firms through knowledge transfer’, Int. J. Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Vol. 14, No. 4, pp.478–496. Biographical notes: Ilse Matser is Professor of Family Firm Research at Windesheim University of Applied Sciences, Assistant Professor at Utrecht University, and Managing Director of the Dutch Centre for Family Businesses (all in The Netherlands). Her research focuses on the field of strategic management and governance of family firms and SMEs.