‘Can’t get no satisfaction?’ Evaluating the sale of the family business from the family's perspective and deriving implications for new venture activities

The scarce research on the sale of family businesses suggests that business-owning families take different factors into account than non-family owners when evaluating a business sale. This paper builds on a utility-oriented framework and analyses literature to identify the key factors that affect the family's appraisal of the sale. We integrate these factors into an explanatory model which shows that the family's evaluation of a business sale takes longer and is often different compared to a non-family business sale. In contrast to the paradigm of family business succession, our model advocates the exit option, which in a second step can foster new entrepreneurial family activity. We discuss how satisfaction might affect new venture activities and apply a case to show how our model can be generally used to analyse a family business sale.