What is Buschenschank

Traditional Heurigen and Buschenschenken have been an important part of Austrian culture for centuries and are mostly run as small family firms. In those businesses, succession is inevitable. Several factors are key for the success of transition processes within a family. Traditional concepts are confronted with digitalization, new technologies, new demand, and social changes. For the chapter at hand, incumbents and heirs of four wine making and Heurigen businesses in the Northern Burgenland were interviewed. Its aim is to investigate the perception of the succession process itself as well as the risk of implementing innovations into traditional concepts. This study shows that innovations are directed by natural circumstances rather than customer demands. The owners rely on traditional concepts with incremental changes to keep customers attracted. Thanks to trust, open communication, and succession processes that spread over long periods of time, neither generation thinks of the handover as problematic.