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The Enigma of the Family Successor–Firm Performance Relationship: A Methodological Reflection and Reconciliation Attempt

Jan-Philipp Ahrens¹; Andrea Calabrò²; Jolien Huybrechts³; Michael Woywode^1,4

¹ Department of Business Studies, University of Mannheim, School of Business Studies and Economics, Mannheim, Germany · ² IPAG LAB, IPAG Business School, Nice, IPAG Family Business Institute (IFBI), France · ³ School of Business and Economics, Department of Organization and Strategy, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands · ⁴ Centre of European Economic Research, Mannheim, Germany

Empirical studies examining firm performance following CEO succession in family firms predominantly document inferior performance of family successors. This evidence is at odds with general theoretical literature that attests a positive effect of family involvement inside the firm. To explore this enigma, we theoretically and empirically disentangle the influence of the CEO attribute family member (i.e., the CEO is affiliated to the family) on post-succession firm performance, from other, distinct CEO attributes (e.g., CEO-related human capital). Our analysis on the individual CEO level shows that after respective controls, the family member attribute is significantly positively related to post-succession firm performance.

DOI

10.1177/1042258718816290

Volume

43 (3)

Pages

437-474

Language

en

Export

BibTeX

Sources

crossref