What is it about?

Although succession planning can be important for the continuity of family firms, not all family business have the opportunity to engage in this planning. Sometimes, these organizations face crisis events that may trigger an intra-family succession. However, what happens when there is an unplanned succession? Are family businesses doomed to fail? This project aims to explore unplanned successions that are triggered by crisis and the impact that this can have on post-succession financial performance.

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Why is it important?

The findings indicate that having a crisis driven intra-family succession does not always result in lower post-succession performance. It is only successions that are triggered by market crises that negatively impact financial performance after the unplanned succession. In these instances, the education and previous experience of the successor moderate the negative relationship between market crisis succession and financial performance such that having more experience and a college education diminishes these negative effects on performance.

Perspectives

Succession is a critical issue in family businesses that are important contributors to the world economy. However, some crises could result in unplanned succession in family businesses. By investigating the effects of types of crises that drive intra-family succession on the post-succession financial performance of family businesses, we contribute to the understanding of crisis and unplanned succession in family businesses.

Peng Ren
University of Louisville

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This page is a summary of: Not all crises are the same: the effects of crisis triggered successions in family firms, Journal of Family Business Management, October 2023, Emerald,
DOI: 10.1108/jfbm-01-2023-0009.
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