Antecedents and consequences of adolescents' motivations to join the family business ☆ Elke Schröder ⁎, Eva Schmitt-Rodermund 1 Department of Developmental Psychology, University of Jena, Am Steiger 3, Haus 1, 07743 Jena, Germany article info abstract Article history: Received 14 May 2013 Available online 6 August 2013 This study investigates the career development of adolescents with a family business background through a motivational lens. Drawing on self-determination theory, antecedents and consequences of three succession motivations (autonomous, e.g., career interest; introjected, e.g., family obligation; external, e.g., job opportunities) were analyzed in a sample of 152 adolescents in family firms. Structural equation modeling revealed that parental relational support and adolescent's perceived entrepreneurial competence predicted autonomous motivation, whereas parental control related to introjected motivation. Moreover, autonomous motivation related positively to offspring's succession likelihood. Findings point to the relevance of parental career-specific behaviors in the early process of career and succession planning in family firms. © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Succession motivation Self-determination theory Adolescents Parental career-specific behaviors Entrepreneurship 1. Introduction A major developmental task in adolescence is to explore various career options and develop career intentions consistent with one's own abilities, values, and interests (Kracke, 2002). For adolescents growing up in a family business, however, career planning not only includes exploration of personal career interests but also balancing family interests and employment opportunities resulting from the family business background. Youth in family businesses may have to deal with intricacies, such as not wanting to disappoint their parents when choosing a profession outside the family firm or making a foreclosed decision by following their parents in the family firm just because the job opportunity is right at hand instead of a thorough exploration of other career opportunities. Because family business offspring's vocational decisions have tremendous consequences not only for their own careers but also for the future management and leadership of their family firm, it is critical to better understand their career-decision making process. From general life-span approaches to vocational development (Vondracek, 2001), it is known that career aspirations in adolescence are highly predictive for later career choices (Low, Yoon, Roberts, & Rounds, 2005) and that early socialization, particularly by parents, plays a crucial role in adolescents' career development. Similarly to this general life-span approach, family business succession can be conceptualized as a developmental process that includes socialization influences starting as early as in adolescence. For example, Stavrou and Swiercz (1998) describe a three-level intergenerational transition model, in which potential successors in the pre-entry stage are connected to the family business through activities such as family discussions and part-time employment. The second level is when the potential successor enters the firm as full-time employee. The third level entails the appointment of the offspring to the leadership position and responsibilities within the family firm. Although models like the above clearly allocate the roots of the succession process as early as in adolescence, surprisingly few empirical studies have addressed this early, adolescent stage in the process of career and succession planning (Eckrich & Loughead, 1996). In the present study, therefore, we attempt to fill this void in the literature by empirically investigating the career development of adolescents in family firms from a motivational perspective. Drawing on self-determination theory (SDT) by Deci and Ryan (1985) as one of the most prominent Journal of Vocational Behavior 83 (2013) 476–485 ☆ This research was supported by grants (No. 03EXTH001A, No. 03EGH1TH02) from the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology in Germany. ⁎ Corresponding author. Fax: + 49 3641 945202. E-mail addresses: elke.schroeder@uni-jena.de (E. Schröder), svs@uni-jena.de (E. Schmitt-Rodermund). 1 Fax: +49 3641 945202. 0001-8791/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2013.07.006 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Vocational Behavior journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jvb