Successors’ Future Training in Family Farms: The Impact of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Factors

This study examines the effects of different intrinsic and extrinsic-to-potential successors’ factors on the willingness of potential successors of family farms to continue training in the future. Building on socioemotional wealth (SEW) theory and a knowledge-based view, we consider the potential successors’ (yet students in agricultural schools) perspectives, and conceptually and empirically examine whether they believe intrinsic factors, namely, their own personal interest and willingness to create a new business, as well as extrinsic factors, namely, confidence in farm viability and the fact that they have been instituted as successors, influence their willingness to continue training in the future. Our unique data on 156 students enrolled in agricultural schools in Catalonia (Spain) reveal that while intrinsic factors increase potential successors’ tendency toward continuous training, extrinsic ones, contrary to our expectations, do not. These findings address an important practical issue in terms of family farm successors’ perceptions, offering contributions to agriculture, family business in general, and family firm succession literature in particular.


Introduction
Next-generation educational background is regarded as one of the most critical factors for family firm survival (Cabrera-Suarez et al., 2018;Sardeshmukh & Corbett, 2011), because it delineates the set of future competitive advantages of these businesses for the coming years or even decades (Jaskiewicz et al., 2015;Wang, 2016).Therefore, it is remarkable that a large stream of family firm research has focused on analyzing the succession process in general (e.g., Sharma et al., 2020;Gimenez-Jimenez et al., 2021;Umans et al., 2020) as well as knowledge acquisition and training of the new generation as components associated with providing successful responses to a growing dynamic economic environment (e.g., Blanco-Mazagatos et al., 2018;Woodfield & Husted, 2017).Moreover, the educational background of successors is even more relevant, since incumbents prefer promoting their offspring rather than offering the baton to non-family managers (Basco & Calabró, 2017;Chiswell, 2018;Chua et al., 1999).Consequently, knowledge acquisition of the successor, particularly her or his training prior to gaining leadership responsibility (Carolan, 2018), has received considerable research attention.Nevertheless, to-date, we lack a comprehensive understanding of whether, and under what conditions, the successor will continue with his or her training once he or she is running the family business.
This research gap in continuous training appears to be particularly relevant in the agricultural context, given that farming is the most hereditary occupation (Chiswell, 2014) and is having disruptive changes in the industry (Suess-Reyes & Fuetsch, 2016).On the one hand, family farms represent an idiosyncratic model of family businesses by following certain traditions and pursuing the primary goal of passing the business on to the next generation of family members (Gasson & Errington, 1993).In other words, it is highly unlikely that agricultural activity on the farm will be assumed by an outside buyer given the high investment necessary and the low expected profitability.For instance, in Europe, family farms account for more than 19 out of 20 farms (Eurostat, 2016).Family farms are based on a long-term orientation that offers an identity and sense of pride in being lifelong farmers to the owners of these businesses (Suess-Reyes& Fuetsch, 2016).Relatedly, the partnerships facilitate the transmission of knowledge between generations (Duesberg et al., 2017), and sharing of risks and work (Moreno-Pérez & Lobley, 2015).As a result, a considerable number of family farms have survived beyond the third generation, and almost a third have functioned in the same geographical setting for over a century, working together with different generations (Lobley et al., 2002).
On the other hand, in view of the significant changes in terms of technology, market structure, and legal aspects in the agriculture industry in the last decade, Suess-Reyes and Fuetsch (2016) argue that the future of family farming is not only dependent on the farms' adaptability to the changing environment but also on the next generation's adequate preparation and continuous training to provide continuity of the farms in the near future.In other words, generational change is not limited to the "simple" incorporation of young people into farming; it must be accompanied by continuous knowledge acquisition and training in order to manage the challenges experienced by the agricultural sector.In other words, the agricultural sector has recently experienced significant changes that have affected farm businesses, as well as their functioning and outcomes (Vik & McElwee, 2011).In this regard, the existing literature describes knowledge as a crucial component for providing "important implications for the creation and sustainment of competitive advantage" (Grant, 2015 p.1).Furthermore, farming serves as an essential activity where not only tacit knowledge, but also explicit knowledge as well as their interaction, is clearly expressed (Rose et al., 2019).
Proper training includes the acquisition of specific knowledge provided by agrarian schools (Coopmans et al., 2021).
Despite the important significance of continuous training in family farms, there is a lack of understanding about which factors impact the willingness of the next generation in family farms to continue training after the succession process has occurred.Drawing on socioemotional wealth (SEW) and knowledge-based view approaches to illuminate this important research gap, this study specifically investigates whether intrinsic factors (a personal interest and willingness to create a new business) as well as extrinsic factors (confidence in farm viability and having been instituted as successor to potential successors in family farms) influence successors willingness to continue training in the future once they are leading the family farm.Our unique data on 156 students belonging to family farms enrolled in 13 agricultural schools located in Catalonia (Spain) reveal that while intrinsic factors increase potential successors' tendency toward continuous training, extrinsic factors, contrary to our expectations, do not.
To address the aforementioned research questions, this study aims to make three principal contributions to the knowledge, family firm, and agriculture literature.First, we advance the knowledge literature by revealing how intrinsic factors (the personal interest of potential successors in running the family farm and their willingness to create a new business or expand the ongoing one) as well as extrinsic factors (their confidence in family farm viability and the fact that they have been instituted as successors to potential successors), affect their willingness to continue training in the future.Our results contribute to a better understanding of the determinants of potential successors' willingness to remain updated through continuous training.
Second, we advance research on family farms (e.g., Suess-Reyes & Fuetsch, 2016), where prior research underlines the need to combine both tacit and explicit knowledge to remain competitive (Cavicchioli et al., 2018).In particular, we reveal the promotion of intrinsic factors to successors as important antecedents of the tendency toward knowledge acquisition in a non-manufacturing setting, particularly among farm leaders.Family farms are considered to be outstanding examples of long-term sustainability because they continually reallocate resources to address the changing needs that emerge in the economic landscape (Foguesatto et al., 2020).As such, our findings complement the body of identified knowledge acquisition and training antecedents within the agriculture sector in general, and family farms in particular.
Third, we contribute to the family business literature by pursuing research questions based on SEW and knowledge-based view theories.Glover and Reay (2015) noted that family farms have a high level of SEW that has been established over 1 3 Journal of the Knowledge Economy (2023) 14:4216-4237 several generations, and its preservation seems to be important in driving behavior.Despite this significant consideration, to our knowledge, this study is one of the first to quantitatively base its theoretical background on SEW at the individual level of future family leaders.In line with Murphy et al. (2019), by revealing a sense of belonging and identity as the roots of an individual's SEW, our study deepens how SEW pushes future leaders to remain updated and complements these findings by adding theoretical insights provided by significant aspects of the knowledge-based view.

The Importance of SEW in Family Farms
Family farms comprise of 98% of all farms and 53% of agricultural land, producing at least 53% of the world's food (Graeub et al., 2016) and constituting at least 500 million family farms out of a total of 570 million farms (FAO, 2017).Despite this, family farms usually produce less than average returns on investment and often continue with negative profits (DEFRA, 2012).In this vein, Glover and Reay (2015, p.163) affirm that "it is surprising that firms such as family farms can be successfully transferred from generation to generation, and yet economic profits can consistently be low or even negative."This fact highlights that, compared to non-family businesses, whose decisions are driven purely by economic reasons, family firms' decision-making nonfinancial goals prevail over economic motives (Arzubiaga et al., 2021a;Chrisman et al., 2015).This logic follows the increasingly studied SEW approach, the idiosyncratic nature of decision-making in family firms (Brigham & Payne, 2019), which refers to the nonfinancial facets of the firm that meet the family's affective needs through the business (Stockmans et al., 2010).These needs are closely related to the ability to exercise family influence (Schulze et al., 2003), identity, family name (Barroso-Martinez et al., 2019), perpetuation of family values (Handler, 1990), and preservation of the family dynasty (Stockmans et al., 2010).
One of the basic assumptions in the SEW discussion relates to how this differential behavior emerges in family firms.In this respect, Murphy et al., (2019;p.397)affirm that "SEW originates and is rooted in the early interactions between family members and the family business as they create a sense of belonging and identity with the business."Furthermore, these authors argue that the more family members learn about the firm, as well as the more formally involved they are, the more they will strengthen their SEW when interpreting the non-financial aspects of the firm in decision-making.Indeed, new generations will continually make strategic use and remain protective of SEW, regardless of whether they continue working in the family business (Calabró et al., 2018).
With regard to SEW outcomes, prior research has explained the effects of family firms' decision-making through the family's desire to preserve SEW (Muphy et al., 2019).In particular, in the last decade, scholars have pointed out that different outcomes in family firms, such as environmental performance (Berrone et al., 2010), financial performance (Cruz et al., 2012;Kotlar et al., 2018), investment in research and development (Chen et al., 2020), innovation and technology decisions (Arzubiaga et al., 2021a;Souder et al., 2017), and firm value (Zellweger & Dehlen, 2012) need to be understood following the logic of SEW.In the case of family farms, the aforementioned outcomes need to be aligned with their primary goal, which is to preserve family control and transfer business to the next generation (Gasson & Errington, 1993).Indeed, most farms successfully pass from generation to generation, which means that the financial and often emotional survival of each generation is connected to the farm's success (Glover & Reay, 2015).Overall, SEW logic suggests that family firms prioritize maintaining family control, although it implies accepting the increased risk of poor firm performance and preventing the firm from failing by acting more conservatively (Gómez-Mejia et al., 2007).

Knowledge Acquisition Among New Generations in Changing Environments
The large environmental, economic, social, political, and institutional challenges that the agriculture industry has faced in developed countries in recent years is pushing smaller-scale farms and family farms toward their disappearance at a rapid pace (Joosse & Grubbström, 2017).In particular, factors such as the growing rigidity of food safety and quality standards, rapid variations in consumer needs and expectations (Alsos, 2011), changing social values (Lankester, 2012), and the development of large, resource-intensive farms have increased the complexity of the playground for family farms (Suess-Reyes & Fuetsch, 2016).As a result, family farms need to adopt innovative strategies that may allow these businesses, on the one hand, to compete with the raise of alternative farming businesses supported by public institutions in Europe (Barlas et al., 2001) and, on the other hand, provide a response to a growth of the population worldwide (Chiswell, 2014;Duesberg et al., 2017).
The involvement of new generations in farming is more necessary than ever (Chiswell, 2018) since these younger generations may contribute to their knowledge of the stimulation of innovation and the use of new technologies that may achieve higher productivity levels (Carolan, 2018;Milone & Ventura, 2019;Vik & McElwee, 2011).Overall, prior research has shown that farming activity has historically been based on experience-based knowledge, a form of tacit knowledge (Nonaka & Toyama, 2007) that passes from generation to generation (Cabrera-Suárez et al., 2001).Woodfield and Husted (2017) affirm that, although a central activity in most firms, knowledge acquisition and sharing are particularly relevant for family farms.More specifically, Bruce (2019) indicates that, apart from gaining equipment and capital, once aspiring family farmers advance in the succession ladder, they also undergo a socialization process that allows them to develop a commitment to continue the family legacy and acquire knowledge based on family tradition.In this step, the transfer of knowledge from incumbents to new generations is key for both the successor's development and, subsequently, to maintain the competitive advantage of the family firm (Botero et al., 2021;Trevinyo-Rodríguez & Bontis, 2010).More specifically, new generations receive valuable industry-specific knowledge and information about the technology, production process, marketing, and distribution that flows through interactions between family decision makers, other family members, and family businesses (Cabrera-Suárez et al., 2018;Rondi & Rovelli, 2021).

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Journal of the Knowledge Economy (2023) 14:4216-4237 Tacit knowledge, which is usually received by the successor as a result of the senior generation's practical knowledge acquired from running the family firm (Su & Daspit, 2021), is context-specific and particularly useful in traditional industries (Woodfield & Husted, 2017).Moreover, the older generations' own knowledge, ability, knowledge, and skills to perform are based on the former's mental schemes, beliefs, and insights that have been successful in the past (Nonaka et al., 1995).Nevertheless, these characteristics of tacit knowledge could influence the tendency toward path dependency (Hirsch-Kreinsen and Schwinge, 2014), which may cause some difficulties in changing environments (Chirico & Salvato, 2008) as well as obstruct developing innovations leading to wealth creation (Woodfield & Husted, 2017).
In this vein, decreasing income and the urgent need to respond to a changing industry in terms of market rules, technology, and even social and political aspects (Carayannis et al., 2021), have pushed family farms to engage in new, sophisticated business strategies (Suess-Reyes & Fuetsch, 2016), where technological advances play a crucial role.In this regard, the adaptation of the family farm to these new rules of the agricultural industry makes it necessary to complement tacit knowledge acquired on the family farm with knowledge acquired through formal education (Nye, 2021).In this context, new generations may play a significant role in the adaptation of the family firm to the new playground by contributing to their new knowledge gained through education as well as through work and experience outside of the family firm (Sharma et al., 2003;Woodfield & Husted, 2017).
Overall, diversification and sophisticated changes around the core business are easier to develop among young and educated farmers (McElwee & Bosworth, 2010).A higher educational background implies greater skills that involve greater farm profitability (Mishra & El-Osta, 2008), and young people have the technical knowledge to improve productivity (Cush & Macken-Walsh, 2016;Rech et al., 2021).Moreover, the Commissioner of Agriculture of the EU, Hogan (2018), argues that, apart from an educational background, the continuous training of highly qualified new generations of young farmers is key to bringing all the benefits of technology to Europe in support of higher productivity and sustainable agricultural practices.

Hypotheses Development
In family businesses, the willingness of the successor to continue training in the future is usually dependent on different intrinsic-to-potential successors and extrinsic-to-potential successors (onwards, intrinsic, and extrinsic factors).Regarding the former, this study focuses on the effects of the personal interests of potential successors in running the family farm and in creating a new business or expanding the ongoing one, and the impact this may have on the willingness of the successors to continue training in the future.Regarding the latter, we analyze whether confidence in the viability of potential successors and the fact of having been instituted as successors may influence the desire of successors to continue training in the future (Fig. 1).

The Effect of Intrinsic Factors in the Willingness to Continue Training
On family farms, the personal interest of potential successors in running the business is likely to strengthen their willingness to continue training in the future.From the SEW approach, the combination of family and business subsystems creates a unique identity within family firms (Berrone et al., 2012).A family's social status is firmly linked to organizational identity with the business carrying the family's name (Arzubiaga et al., 2021a;Beck & Prügl, 2018).Family identity pursues protecting family image and, accordingly, family members make decisions to enhance the firm's reputation (Deephouse & Jaskiewicz, 2013).Some of these decisions, which could be made within different fields such as strategy, manufacturing, or even human resource management, need upper-level and updated knowledge to succeed (Arzubiaga et al., 2021b).This is especially relevant in the case of family farms as a consequence of the big changes in this industry in recent years (Suess-Reyes & Fuetsch, 2016).In this vein, new generations, who usually exhibit an early interest in family business (Kraiczy et al., 2014), often lead their education to their eventual business role (Arregle et al., 2007).For this purpose, these new generations may focus on firm-specific studies (Arzubiaga et al., 2019b) that will enhance their desire to continually train in the near future.
On the other hand, the SEW approach also points out that the emotional attachment of family members toward the family business may have important implications in their own goals and decisions (Arzubiaga et al., 2021a;Kellermanns et al., 2012).This emotional attachment originates in the family's shared knowledge, experience, and storytelling, which influences how family members feel and make decisions at present (Filser et al., 2018).Indeed, family businesses could add family members with feelings of security, belonging, and cohesion (Berrone et al., 2012).This emotional attachment is particularly powerful in family farms, where younger generations have gradually ascended the agricultural ladder as they grew up (Bruce, 2019).Younger generations usually try to find new ways to revitalize and expand the business (Cruz & Nordqvist, 2012) by incorporating new knowledge and perspectives into the knowledge and expertise of older generations (Alayo et al., 2019), so as to facilitate more updated ideas and higher quality decision-making (Arzubiaga et al., 2019a).This is particularly relevant in cases where younger generations of family farms return to the farm, since these potential successors will pursue reinvigoration by running diversification strategies learned outside the family business (Glover & Reay, 2015).Moreover, Suess-Reyes and Fuetsch (2016) argues that the intention to diversify the farm business is influenced by the decision-maker's personal goals, such as pursuing a new challenge or shaping a personal interest.Consequently, potential successors who have their own personal interest in running the family farm will be interested in continuing their training in the future.Thus, we conclude that potential successors' personal interest in running a family farm is positively related to their willingness to continue training in the future.Formally stated: • H1.The personal interest of potential successors in running a family farm is positively related to their willingness to continue training.
One of the main non-economic goals of family businesses is the development of social ties with both family and non-family stakeholders (Berrone et al., 2012).Regarded as binding social ties, the interactions and cooperation among different generations allow the development of new knowledge (Arzubiaga et al., 2021a).On the one hand, senior family members may contribute with their tacit knowledge and expertise to the internal debate and decision-making processes (Arzubiaga et al., 2019b).On the other hand, younger generations usually provide fresh perspectives that may help enrich and update the already internalized knowledge within the family firm (Nason et al., 2019).Furthermore, younger family members often have very different educational backgrounds and expertise compared to older family members (Talke et al., 2010).
In addition, the binding social ties dimension of SEW highlights the importance of maintaining social relationships with external stakeholders (Berrone et al., 2012).Prior research argues that the stronger and more frequent the relationships with external agents are, the more likely the decision makers in family firms will be to adopt innovative strategies (Arzubiaga et al., 2019a).This is especially valuable in the case of new generations, since fluent relationships with experts will help them to demystify the fear of taking the baton in the family business, as well as offering them with a more accurate picture of the benefits and costs of expanding it.As such, an intense relationship with external professionals may strengthen the receptiveness to external and novel knowledge (Classen et al., 2012).In other words, these interactions with experts, which may facilitate the acquisition, sharing, and use of novel knowledge (Del Giudice et al., 2010) to guide potential successors' future performance as family farm leaders, may underlie the need for continued training in the future.
The sensitivity toward the need for continuous training is also reinforced by the fact that younger generations are usually better prepared and have upper-level education and external experience than older generations (Cruz & Nordqvist, 2012).In particular, new generations have internalized the idea that continuous training may provide them with the pool of skills and capabilities needed not only to run but also to expand their family farms in the near future (Plana-Farran & Gallizo, 2021).Indeed, potential successors feel that continuous training in the future will add updated knowledge and cutting-edge ability to evaluate markets and competitors.For instance, continuous training may provide potential successors with the knowledge to analyze whether or not to enter new fields such as alternative agriculture and, if so, how they can do it (Bruce, 2019).Thus, we conclude that the willingness of potential successors to create a new business or to expand the ongoing business is positively related to their willingness to continue training in the future.Formally stated: • H2.The willingness of potential successors to create a new business or expand the ongoing business is positively related to their willingness to continue training in the future.

The Effect of extrinsic Factors in the Willingness to Continue Training
SEW originates as a result of the interactions between the family business and family members from their childhood, since they create a sense of identity with the business as well as a sense of belonging to it (Murphy et al., 2019).Young family members perform their first steps in the family farm as unpaid workers at the lowest level in order to gain farm-specific knowledge and expertise so as to lead the family farm in the future (Bruce, 2019).This gradual evolution in their role within the family farm facilitates the development of invisible, strong ties between potential successors and the family farm, which may drive the desire of new generations to run the family farm in the future (Plana-Farran & Gallizo, 2021).However, despite the power of these non-visible ties, confidence in the viability of the family farm may also play an important role in the decision-making of potential successors regarding whether or not to follow the family farm (Lobley & Potter, 2004).Aspects such as the economic context of a region, characteristics of the farm enterprise, and family circumstances may influence their desire to lead a family farm (Bruce, 2019).In this regard, the specific, high-level education in agriculture, as well as their expertise outside the family farm, may provide potential successors with valuable instruments not only to have a more objective picture of the future economic viability of the business (Cavicchioli et al., 2015), but also to make them more confident in themselves as future successors (Suess-Reyes & Fuetsch, 2016).Knowledge-based resources can trigger the improvement of efficiency rates in ongoing production and facilitate the development of novel products and services in the market (Plana-Farran & Gallizo, 2021).Furthermore, continuous knowledge acquisition and training among new successors may promote the development of routines that could be useful in new situations, thus reducing the need to continually create new routines (Nadolska & Barkema, 2014).In other words, potential successors who value their own knowledge acquisition and training feel confident about the future viability of the family farm and may pursue continuous training in the future.
On the other hand, although younger generations in family businesses are usually better prepared in terms of upper-level education and expertise (Cruz & Nordqvist, 2012), later generations are usually subject to greater scrutiny by the public (Firfiray 1 3 Journal of the Knowledge Economy (2023) 14:4216-4237 et al., 2018).It is not uncommon for the public to believe that successors are running the business, not as a consequence of their competence and merits, but through nepotism (Fang et al., 2018).Fang et al. (2018) affirm that younger generations are likely to act following strategic conformity, understood in terms of firm behaviors that follow prevailing routines and strategies in the market (Miller et al., 2013).In this regard, these authors argue that although the family firm performs well, the new generations may prefer to follow the latest tendencies in the market with the aim of convincing external stakeholders that they are capable of achieving similar or even superior performance.Consequently, potential successors may be conscious of the need for continuous training in the future.Thus, we conclude that confidence in the family farm viability of potential successors is positively related to their willingness to continue training in the future.Formally stated: • H3.Confidence in the family farm viability of potential successors is positively related to their willingness to continue training in the future.
From a SEW approach, family firms usually develop a long-term orientation to keep the family business under control in future generations.This long-term orientation results in the development of a transgenerational vision and a feeling of dynasty (Berrone et al., 2012).Thus, families assume that finding an adequate successor is key to the success of the family firm in the long haul (Sharma et al., 2003), although families often struggle to identify a successor for their family farm (Joose and Grubbstrom, 2017).Indeed, in family farms, choosing a successor and developing his/her skills is a long process, often called the agricultural ladder, which needs to be ascended gradually (Bruce, 2019).As such, the inter-generational transfer of farmland within farm family's needs to fulfill different phases (Bates & Rudel, 2004).More specifically, these authors argue that aspiring farmers start as unpaid laborers in their youth who gain knowledge and experience until they are prepared to start their own business or run their predecessors business.In general, the development of a family dynasty entails that family owners deeply reflect on transferring control of the firm to the next generation (Arzubiaga et al., 2021a), which makes them more inclined to prepare themselves in terms of knowledge acquisition, but also keep on training once they are chosen as successors.This encourages family firms to improve their ability to face changing economic landscapes with the goal of transferring a sustainable organization to their successors (Berrone et al., 2012).
Prior research indicates that a higher number of young family members living on farms enhances the number of potential successors (Glauben et al., 2009;Suess-Reyes & Feutsch, 2016).Nevertheless, Cavicchioli et al. (2015) argue that many potential successors may also have a counterproductive effect on potential successors.These authors explain that increased competition among different potential successors may reduce children's desire to lead family farms in the future.Accordingly, the uncertainty of their future may lessen the desire of potential successors to continue training.This transforms the nomination phase into one of the most important aspects of succession processes in both family and non-family firms (Basco and Calabró, 2017).In other words, having been chosen as the successor adds motivation to these family members to acquire new knowledge and abilities in the future.
Therefore, we conclude that having been instituted as successors in family farms positively influences potential successors' willingness to continue training in the future.Formally stated: • H4.Having been instituted as a successor in a family farm is positively related to a willingness to continue training in the future.

Industry Context and Participants
Our study was conducted in an agrarian environment.Farming has a long track record and is a key-stone industry in Catalonia, Spain, and Europe.According to data collected from the Spanish Government (MAPA, 2021), only 0.23% of land in Spain is managed by farmers under 25 years of age, and 3.57% of farmers are between 26 and 34.On average, farmers under 35 years old do not reach 5% of the total land.They mainly pertain to the family farms.
Family farms are considered a source of tacit and explicit knowledge (Grubbström et al., 2014), having to face new demands in an evolving tendency from traditional industries to a technological sector.Boundaries of farming have been and are in permanent change, pushed with the introduction of new production and environmental requirements as a consequence of new and evolving science and technology (Suess-Reyes & Fuetsch, 2016).In this sense, farming has progressed globally over the past century.Science, technology, and new political trends have evolved from practice-based to specific knowledge.Formal education has considerably increased farming practices and productivity (Johnson et al., 2007).Moreover, the appearance of formal education through faculties of agricultural studies or agrarian schools from the middle of the last century has permitted the acquisition of specific knowledge through new agricultural programs (Plana-Farrán and Gallizo, 2021).
Although a very small dimension of family farms is the main characteristic, family farming activity represents around 90% of farming in Catalonia (Spain).Furthermore, family farms in the specific region we studied have considerable knowledge associated with a history of farming in different areas (e.g., fruits, cattle, grapes, almonds, and olive oil, among others) that represent a culture, sense of belonging, and being rooted in the land (Plana-Farran & Gallizo, 2021).
Our field of action in this research comprised of agricultural schools around Catalonia, and we obtained data on young people planning to join the farming business, who in most cases belonged to farming families.Although we surveyed all the students in all the agricultural schools in Catalonia, the target group for this specific study comprised of 161 students from family farms enrolled in Catalan agricultural schools.In other words, the dataset was based on agricultural school students who were trained to work in agriculture and the agroindustry and belonged to family farms.Thirteen agricultural schools are present in the region, spread around different rural and agricultural scenarios that comprise the entire Catalan region, depending on the Department of Agriculture and Education.Training courses are officially recognized and provide qualified student eligibility for EU young farmers' subsidies.Of the 161 participants, five students had to be excluded from the study because they did not answer some of the questions.The final sample was composed of 156 students.

Measures
We used an ad hoc questionnaire to collect data on the measures used in this study.First, the participants were asked about their personal interests as successors in running the family farm.This question was answered on a five-point Likert-type scale, ranging from very low (1) to very high (5).Second, we asked about their confidence in the viability of the family farm, which was answered on a five-point Likert-type scale ranging from very low (1) to very high (5).Third, we asked the respondents whether they had been endowed with becoming a successor to their family farm, which was answered in a yes/no format.Fourth, the respondents were asked whether they intended to create a new business or expand the actual one, which was answered in a yes/no format.Fifth, we asked students about their future training intentions, whose answers had a dichotomous yes/no format.Finally, demographic information, including age and sex, was collected using the same questionnaire.

Procedure and Data Analyses
To reach as many students as possible, a schedule was agreed upon with the management of each agrarian school.We visited each school (13 in total, around all Catalonia) to explain the objective of the study.Participation was anonymous and not mandatory.To avoid any potential misunderstanding or mistakes, the study researchers were present during the completion of the survey.The data collection was completed in 2019.
The data were analyzed utilizing a logistic regression with the binary dependent variable of intention to continue education as the dependent variable (in a yes or no response format).There were four predictors corresponding to interest, confidence, transmission of business, and entrepreneurship.The contribution of each predictor was evaluated using a single regression model.These five models were compared with a model without predictors using an ANOVA F test and evaluated with a Nagelkerke pseudo coefficient of determination (R 2 ) and Akaike's information criteria (AIC).The contribution of each predictor is indicated by a significant F test, higher Nagelkerke's coefficients, and lower AICs values.All statistical analyses were conducted using the R software (R Development Core Team, 2014).The data and codes for the statistical analyses are available from the corresponding author upon request.

Results
Table 1 shows the logistic regression outcomes that predicted the intention to continue education.The models with interest and entrepreneurship were fairly good at predicting this outcome.First, the model with interest yielded a significant F test (F = 4.584, p < 0.05) and a significant odds ratio (OR = 1.82), indicating that higher interest was related to a higher likelihood of pursuing further education.Second, the model with entrepreneurship yielded an even higher significant F test (F = 8.57, p < 0.01), with a larger significant odds ratio (OR = 2.948).These findings suggest that individuals who were more willing to initiate a business were also more likely to have further educational intentions.However, confidence and transmission were not related to the likelihood of pursuing further education.

Discussion and Implications for Theory and Practice
This study explores new drivers of potential successors´ willingness to continue training in the future on family farms and explains how different factors linked to potential successors´ intrinsic and extrinsic factors influence their willingness to continue training in the future.The empirical investigation, using a sample of 156 students belonging to family farms enrolled in Catalan agricultural schools, produced some interesting results.
First, we hypothesized and showed that the personal interest of potential successors in running the family farm leads to a higher willingness to continue training in the future, confirming the connection of the family's social status to the organizational identity, as well as the emotional attachment of new generations to the family farm (Plana-Farran & Gallizo, 2021) as engines of the desire to follow training in the future.On the one hand, our results suggest that the close bonds between the family firm image, which are protected by the family identity, and its subsequent reputation (Arzubiaga et al., 2019a) may incentivize potential successors to lead their education toward firm-specific studies (agricultural studies) to gain updated knowledge that allows them to compete in a changing environment.Moreover, this tendency toward knowledge acquisition in a dynamic environment will enhance the desire for new generations to continue training in the future.On the other hand, our results also indicate the significance of emotional attachment that new generations have to the family farm in their desire to continue training in the future.The literature on family farms indicates that these binding ties emerge as a consequence of the agricultural ladder; thus, this represents the gradual evolution of potential successors in their role within the family farm (Kloppenburg Jr. & Geisler, 1985).This gradual evolution of potential successors in their role within the organization may enhance the desire to continue training in the future to adequately respond to deeply changing market expectations and needs.Our findings extend and complement studies that focus exclusively on the importance of a family's shared knowledge and storytelling from generation to generation as an important driver of family members' feelings and decisions at present (Filser et al., 2018).
Second, our results also confirm that the willingness of potential successors to create a new business or expand the ongoing family farm leads to a willingness to continue training in the future.This finding emphasizes the significance of the binding social ties dimension of SEW, which shows that social relationships with external stakeholders (Berrone et al., 2012) may increase interactions with experts (Arzubiaga et al., 2021b).In this vein, prior research suggests that, as a consequence of this flow of knowledge and information (De Massis et al., 2016), potential successors in family farms will not only acquire novel competences, but will also increase their sensitivity toward the need for continued training in the future.This finding is consistent with that of Bruce (2019), who suggests that knowledge acquisition may offer potential successors the ability to identify new markets and decide whether to enter.Nevertheless, instead of focusing on the potential effects of knowledge acquisition on the abilities of new generations, as in Bruce (2019), our research adds to this by focusing on how the willingness to create a new business or expand the ongoing business impacts the willingness to continue training in the future.
Third, contrary to our expectations, we find that confidence in the family firm viability of potential successors does not significantly influence their willingness to continue training in the future.This finding shows that potential successors feel confident that family farm viability pushes them to prioritize the strategies and knowhow that were once successful in the past.For example, Gomez-Mejia et al.'s (2007) SEW framework helps to explain this finding.According to the SEW perspective, emotional attachment emerges as a consequence of a family's shared knowledge, and past experiences influence family members' present and future decisions (Filser et al., 2018).Moreover, potential successors, guided by the desire to preserve the family firm heritage, may be reluctant to change the family business's future functioning (Arzubiaga et al., 2021b), so as avoiding the acquisition of new knowledge through continuous training in the future.Relatedly, our finding that having been instituted as a successor in the family firm does not influence potential successors' willingness to continue training in the future may also be explained from the SEW perspective.More specifically, although the need for continuous training can be regarded as helpful for successors to respond to the changing environment, the fact that a family's tendency to maintain control over the firm's operation makes family firms more inclined to contract family managers over non-family professionals (Umans et al., 2020) with the aim of maintaining the ongoing knowledge of how that has been internalized from past generations.This may explain why having been selected as a successor does not have a significant impact on the willingness to continue training in family farms.
Our findings offer insights for family-firm owners and managers.In particular, since we focused on potential successors' intention to continue training in the future, our discussion about the importance of intrinsic and extrinsic factors as significant antecedents of the willingness to continue training in order to remain competitive in a rapidly evolving industry (such as agriculture) might offer family firms the opportunity to work on priorities for these future CEOs during their formative period.For instance, the personal interest of potential successors in running a family farm enhances their willingness to continue training.Relatedly, the willingness of potential successors to create a new business or expand the ongoing one also pushes the desire of potential successors to continue training in the future.In this sense, with the insights from this study, family firm incumbents can start from early childhood by incorporating the family values such as entrepreneurial orientation or identification with the ongoing family farm to develop an intrinsic orientation toward continuous training within the new generations of the family farm.These facts do not necessarily imply instituting one of their children as successors from the very beginning, but creating dynamics around the future of the family farm that has to do with developing an entrepreneurial spirit and a clear identification with the family farm, two key factors that may enhance their willingness to continue training.

Limitations and Future Research
Our study has several limitations that provide directions for future research.First, we relied on data from a single region, Catalonia, which may have limited the generalizability of our results.Although we do not expect a significant variation in results between Catalonia and other Western regions, cultural factors may influence our arguments, especially in countries with natural cultures that significantly differ from Catalonia's (Hofstede, 2001).Second, our study is cross-sectional in nature, which implies a need for further study into the causal relationships between the dependent and independent variables using longitudinal research (Arzubiaga et al., 2019b).Nonetheless, we tested for a common method bias (Podsakoff & Organ, 1986) and did not find any concern.Third, the limitations of this study include the fact that the survey respondents were students at agrarian schools that pertain to family farms and study for enrollment in the agrarian sector, mainly family farms where they belong.This spread unquestionably entails a bias toward new entrants in farming, and the results should therefore be interpreted in this light.Fourth, although relying on a single informant is common when the main informant is surveyed (Simon & Shrader, 2012), this still creates a limitation.Indeed, the surveys were answered by the students who belonged to a family farm, not by principals who were heavily involved in the succession process.
These limitations open new avenues for future research.On the one hand, future studies may analyze the influence of the already studied drivers on the continuity of training in different contexts to examine the generalizability of our findings.Moreover, our results call for different settings in order to theorize about knowledge management and continuity in family farming.Future research should take advantage of integrating findings across different contexts and regions, deepening and building more cumulative research results.Furthermore, since continuous training could have both positive and negative effects (such as frustration and potential conflicts in the cases where the succession will not eventually take place), future studies could also focus on the dual nature of the continuous training.
On the other hand, future research analyzing longitudinal data may provide further insights into the causality of these relationships.In addition, family firms' succession has been studied by considerably in domains other than family farms; however, more research is needed in the family farm field to shed light on the different factors that influence the succession process in this field as well as the educational background and expertise of potential successors.

Conclusions
Continuous training in family farms, regarded as essential for remaining competitive in a changing environment (Suess-Reyes & Fuetsch, 2016), is dependent on the willingness of its potential successors.Drawing from a sample of 156 students enrolled in Catalan agricultural schools and belonging to family farms, this study examined the effects of two intrinsic and two extrinsic factors on the desire of potential successors to continue training in the future.More specifically, based on the SEW and knowledge-based perspective, this research found that intrinsic factors (the personal interest of potential successors in running the family farm and their willingness to create a new business or expand the ongoing one) positively influenced the willingness of these potential successors to continue training in the future.Nevertheless, this research also shows that extrinsic factors (their confidence in family farm viability and having been instituted as successors to potential successors) did not significantly impact their willingness to continue training in the future.These main findings suggest that regardless of contextual factors, such as the viability of a specific sector, the non-economic goals internalized by potential successors through their evolution in the agricultural ladder may push successors to pursue continuous training in the future.

Table 1
Logistic regression models predicting training intentions (B = standardized regression coefficients; SE,