What are my rights during participation?
Participation in the online survey is entirely voluntary and can be withdrawn at any time without explanation or negative consequences. If the participant encounters a question, which the participant prefers not to answer, the question can be skipped. Further, the survey can be exited at any point in time.
What information is being collected?
The survey has different blocks, each dedicated to a specific topic. The survey collects data on the participant’s intention to succeed in the family business and on their private life plans as well as the perceived fit with succeeding in the family business. Questions on the life course and future life plans cover aspects such as educational milestones, partnerships/marriage, family planning, mobility desires, and form the largest part of the survey. Besides this main part, the participant is also asked to provide background information such as the year of birth, gender, occupation, place of residence, siblings information, marital and family status, as well as some characteristics of the family business. It should be noted that the survey has questions addressing the participant’s knowledge and attitude towards their family business and their life plans. There is no obligation to answer a specific question or to continue the survey if the participant feels uncomfortable with the questions.
If the participant wishes to receive the study report or to take part in a follow-up survey (“cohort study”), the participant will be asked to provide an email address at the end of the questionnaire. The email address will be stored in a separate database, so that no link between the survey results and the email address can be made in retrospective. The participant’s email address will only be used to send out the study report or the cohort study invitation, respectively.
How will my data be used?
The data collected will only be used for academic purposes and will not be transferred to third parties. Participating in the survey is possible without indicating your name and without registration. All information is thus anonymous and highly confidential.
It must be noted that protection of the data is subject to legal limitations. It is possible for data to be subject to subpoena, freedom of information claim or mandated reporting by some professions. The data collected will be saved on the servers of our software provider Qualtrics until the end of the data collection period, which is May 31, 2025. The data is encrypted and secured. The Qualtrics software fully complies with the latest General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requirements, for details please refer to https://www.qualtrics.com/gdpr/. Access to the data is only granted to the research team and will be treated with high confidentiality. The subsequent research studies, which are based on aggregated data of this online survey will be published and accessible.
What are my rights regarding my data?
While responding, the participant’s answers can be changed anytime. As the survey is completely anonymous, editing the survey responses is only possible until the completion of the survey.
Who funds the study?
Our research project is independent of external financing from third parties. Therefore, this survey serves a science-based research purpose, rather than a commercial one. We acknowledge partial funding through a postdoctoral research grant by the University of St. Gallen’s Basic Research Fund.
Who reviewed the study?
We followed strict academic procedures with regards to the ethical review of our survey study. We received the formal approval letter for our survey study by the Ethics Committee of the University of St. Gallen.