What is the case?

Sustainable business succession of an agricultural family business demands a lot from the transferor, successor, and the rest of the family. It is complex due to sometimes conflicting family, business, and ownership relations, as well as the growing business size and sustainability challenges. In the 2017 coalition agreement, support for "sustainable business succession" was included, divided into two phases. In phase 1, VHL developed a board game focused on the soft aspects of agricultural business succession, which was widely and successfully received. To consolidate this success, the board game will be further developed in phase 2 for educational and professional use.

What is the project doing about it?

In this project, the prototype board game 'Around the Table' (analogue serious game from phase 1) is being further developed and validated with partners from the field. Students and families, under the guidance of lecturers or agro-coaches, play out the often unspoken aspects and sometimes conflicting interests of business succession in a safe environment (Figure 1). During the game, the board player experiences the perspectives of other family members in the succession process (the player takes on a different role than their actual position). During the test rounds, video recordings are made with the consent of the players and analysed to implement improvements in the board game.

What does the project deliver?

The project results in a consolidated board game in various versions, suitable for education and professional practice. Three types of board games will be delivered:

1. The basic model for education, the further development from phase 1;
2. A variant for agro-coaches with a checklist for debriefing;
3. A variant for lateral entrants.

The board game incorporates outcomes from all projects in phase 1 (a total of 6 projects). The board game will be made available for vocational (mbo) and higher professional (hbo) education and for agro-coaches in professional practice.

Project details

Applied Research Group Leader: Robert Baars
Researcher-Lecturers: Gelein Biewenga, Iris Jonker, Diederik Sleurink, Edwin Weesie (HU), Bart Hoogeboom (Windesheim), Boudewijn Dijkstra (NHL Stenden).
Project Duration: 2023-2025
Project Partners: The consortium consists of 4 universities of applied sciences (lead partner VHL, NHL Stenden, Windesheim, University of Applied Sciences Utrecht), 2 vocational colleges (Vonk College, Terra College), software company 8D games, 5 agro-coaches/business advisors, 2 agricultural entrepreneurs, industry organisations (LTO, NAJK), and Rabobank. The universities of applied sciences take the lead in implementation and use other partners for validation and dissemination.