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In today's society, family businesses are the driving force of European economies. Long-term ambition, legacy and innovation are key words to describe them. When the time comes to hand over the business to the future owners, the thorny issue of transmission arises. This challenge leads too often to failure as 30% of family businesses come over the process according to the European Family Business Federation. 
Being aware of this problematic, Arkus Financial Services decided to tackle the issue of transmission, as well as succession in family owned businesses as part of the overall Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) framework. We attempt in the project-thesis to address the key obstacles that may jeopardize the transfer of the ownership and the transfer of the management and to fill this breach by developing a resilience assessment system focusing on enterprise-wide risks. 
The project-thesis begins with a review of the context in which the project is conducted. A description of the project management approach used is also discussed. Next, a literature review is performed. The aim of the literature review is to apprehend the dynamic between the family and the business, the challenges encountered by entrepreneurs during succession and transmission, the meaning of resilience, risk management, and the ERM methodology. 
Based on the literature review, we detail the steps necessary for the development and implementation of the resilience assessment system. The developed approach is formalized and implemented into calculation engines supported by a practical example. The conclusions of the thesis will be drawn through recommendations and the future perspectives of the project.

Family Business --- Family Business Succession --- Family Business Transmission --- Risk Management --- Resilience Assessment System --- Enterprise Risk Management --- Sciences économiques & de gestion > Finance

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In the literature, the subject of communication during the succession process in family businesses has been mostly addressed as a solution to conflicts. An in-depth analysis about communication as an issue in itself has not been conducted yet. After establishing a theoretical framework, we assumed that the two main actors involved in the succession process, namely the incumbent and the successor, could have different communication methods that would have an impact on the succession process. We used a qualitative method and interviewed seven family businesses to develop this assumption. The first objective of this thesis was to analyze the communication for each profile as well as the relationship between the incumbent and the successor. The second goal was to confirm what has been said in the literature concerning the factors that influence the communication and the good practices that improve this communication. Following our research and our analysis, we created a model that shows how two variables related to communication can impact the succession process.

communication, soft issues, succession process, family business, relationship incumbent/successor, good practices. --- Sciences économiques & de gestion > Gestion de l'entreprise & théorie des organisations

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In recent decades, we have seen the rise of family philanthropy in response to current social and societal challenges. We know that philanthropic family foundations are getting more organized and professionalized, but the subject remains little explored by academics, particularly in the Belgian context which is known for its discretion. Furthermore, if family philanthropy is passed down from generation to generation, there is no literature about the Belgian next generation of these wealthy entrepreneurial families, called the “Next Gen”.
The objective of this research is to understand the motivations of the Belgian Next Gen to engage in their family philanthropy. The reason for our interest in this issue is that the authors who have studied this generation have identified major differences between these young people and their predecessors and predict potential changes in family philanthropy. We conducted this research to reveal what we believe is the source of these changes: the reasons that drive this generation for their family philanthropy. We also looked at the contextual elements that may have influenced their motivations and their impact.
The authors who wrote about this generation show that the Next Gen wants to respect the philanthropic family legacy because it transmitted them strong values such as "give back to society", but they also reveal that their personal values prevail in their approach. On the other hand, the authors characterize this generation as the first to put the creation of social and societal change as priorities in their philanthropic choices. This tension between innovation and respect for family legacy may affect the future of philanthropy.
As, today, only a few reports in the practitioner literature provide information on this subject, and this mainly on the American Next Gen, we decided to compare these data with those of the Belgian situation. To do so, firstly, this paper provides an overview of what is family philanthropy and its evolution. Then, it introduces the concept of the “Next Gen” and their characteristics before listing their motivations for engaging in family philanthropy according to the eight mechanisms of Bekkers & Wiepking (2011). Secondly, we conducted a qualitative study by interviewing ten Next Gen from five Belgian family businesses involved in the philanthropic structure of their family.

Entrepreneurial families, Family business, Family foundation, Family legacy, Family philanthropy, Motivations, Next Gen --- Sciences économiques & de gestion > Domaines particuliers de l'économie (santé, travail, transport...)