Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-1-2007
Abstract
This paper describes selection processes of successors in family businesses with respect to daughters of family business owners. Statistics reveal a paucity of daughters in the ranks of successors. Understanding of this issue might identify beliefs and practices within business owning families that may contribute to the success or failure of transitioning from one generation to the next. A conceptual model was developed based on the decision making process described by The Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1985). A qualitative approach was used to investigate this phenomenon allowing for feelings, stories, and reflective thought to emerge and provide insights into this issue. A total of twenty-one interview subjects participated in this study. Themes from the interviews were identified, compared, and contrasted between three sample subgroups: 1) daughters who did not become successors, 2) daughters who became successors, and 3) sons who became successors in their family's business. Findings reveal that social and gender norms, not a decision making process, drive the initial selection process. These norms preclude daughters from perceiving themselves as potential successors. The norms are generated by a recursive process with popular media, parents, teachers, and other community leaders and practices reinforcing roles for men and women that deter daughters from assuming leadership positions in industry and business. Findings also disclose that an unusual event creating a critical need may collapse these norms and allow daughters an opportunity to become a successor. The opportunity, coupled with mentoring and the development of self-efficacy can lead to effective, sustainable succession.
Keywords
family-owned business enterprises, succession, family owned business, succession, gender, self-efficacy, norms, mentoring, Theory of Planned Behavior
Rights
© The Author(s). Kelvin Smith Library provides access for non-commercial, personal, or research use only. All other use, including but not limited to commercial or scholarly reproductions, redistribution, publication or transmission, whether by electronic means or otherwise, without prior written permission is strictly prohibited.
Department/Center
Design & Innovation
Recommended Citation
Overbeke, Kathyann Kessler, "Pruning The Garden of Successors: Daughters, Sons, and Succession in Family Businesses" (2007). Student Scholarship. 347.
https://commons.case.edu/studentworks/347