Succession planning is critical to the life of family firms. It has been observed that, when families cannot identify an heir, they either incur divestment or develop a static management mode, without progress. (Fallan & Galizo, 2021). The focus of company leaders' sustainability reviews is frequently on human capital. According to Calareso (2013), as cited by Polk (2016), a company is only as good as its employees, but finding employees who are suitable for the company remains a challenge in the context of an uncertain business environment. Calareso (2013) further indicates that despite companies planning for their successors, they engage in minimal planning. Further limitations of data and information availability in VUCA environments driven by rapid change in markets severely limit and constrain any dimensions of risk diversification and decision-making toward stability and certainty. The need for information about the succession plan is different in various sectors and helps minimize the challenges that affect succession in an organization. Therefore, the critical problem that this study strives to address is the perceived lack of succession planning to address both internal and external promotional opportunities for filling in family-owned businesses at the needed time. Hence, this study strives to explore the approach that exists which are used in a succession of family-owned businesses and give a recommendation that can be used to develop CEOs for such family firms when faced with such problems in VUCA environments to engineer reasonable choices, offset constraints, allocate resources, perform organization alignment, diversify risks and strive towards sustainable growth and stability with continuity and longevity of the family firm and its SEW emotional endowment.(Cruz, 2012).

I want to the express my admiration and deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Assistant Professor with Habilitation Dr. Renato Pereira, for all his guidance, encouragement and support.

VUCA,Family Firms,Succession Planning,Uncertainty,S.E.W VUCA,S.E.W.

• Economia e Gestão - Ciências Sociais