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The succession process represents one of the most critical events in the family business lifecycle. The purpose of this paper is to explore this process while focussing first on the drivers behind the choice of successor and, second, on the impact of this choice on the entrepreneurial behavior of the siblings.

The qualitative approach was used in which multiple case analyses were performed. A total of 12 cases were purposively selected from the Lebanese private sector, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with the successors and the founders when available. The interview data were transcribed and a coding scheme was created to generate relevant categories. Those categories were named and later re-assessed by an external researcher to ensure inter-rater reliability.

The three dimensions of social capital were found to have a profound influence on the succession decision with much focus on familial stewardship as an emerging cognitive driving force. When “familial stewardship” is shared by incumbent and sibling, it strengthens the latter’s chances of being chosen as successor. Further, a succession pathways model was introduced that depicts the siblings’ behavior following the succession decision which seems to often trigger further entrepreneurship.

This study is distinct as it introduces a new cognitive construct that helps rationalize the successor-selection decision in a Middle Eastern context. It also goes beyond the succession event to depict potential entrepreneurial behavior triggered by succession.

By combining manifold approaches from migrant entrepreneurship and family business studies, the purpose of the paper is to shed some light upon the contextual features of motivation, resources, generational pathways of Turkish migrant family entrepreneurs in Berlin – through the lens of a mixed and multiple embeddedness approach.

An explorative research design, based on an eclectic theoretical framework and on purposive sampling, combines qualitative in-depth interviews/content analysis and on-site observation resulting in an almost ethnographic assessment of selected case studies of Turkish migrant family entrepreneurs (concerning age (min. 20 years), size (15+ employees) and currently at a stage of succession).

The results show that despite specific strategies vary – four circumstances hold true for all cases: (1) firm trajectories were characterized by little strategic planning and mostly trail-and error processes in the past and business survival is highly dependent on owner families; (2) owner families heavily relied on personal, family and collective resources, not benefiting from promotion programmes or micro-funding measures for SMEs; (3) owner families have actively developed their (mixed) embeddings during the growth of their migrant business beyond the single ethnic group at various spatial scales; (4) succession adds another layer of context – what we call here multiple embeddedness – with ambivalent effects: emerging potentials and conflicts between the preceding and succeeding generation.

Results have shown that is it necessary to set up both: customized funding opportunities for migrant start-ups in general and succession consulting for migrant family entrepreneurs in particular. Given the magnitude of family migrant entrepreneurs and the accelerating migration patterns in most Western European countries, there is urgent need for such measures.

Family entrepreneurship has been often discussed without a migration perspective, neither taking a systematic look at pertinent motivation, resources, and future trajectories nor context. Migrant entrepreneurship studies barely take the family or family-specific issues (e.g. succession) into account, and mainly deal with the integration or economic aspects. Our mixed and multiple embeddedness approach allows for a holistic view on transgenerational migrant family entrepreneurship by integrating both socio-spatial (actor, family, network, micro, meso, macro) and multi-generational contexts (preceding, succeeding).

The purpose of this paper is to increase understanding of the internationalization of family firms; to investigate how the framework by Bell et al. on the internationalization patterns of firms could explain the internationalization pathways taken by family‐owned small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs); and to identify typical patterns and features in the various pathways taken by family‐owned SMEs.

This paper reports findings from an in‐depth multiple case study with eight Finnish family‐owned SMEs.

The ownership structure had the most important role in defining the internationalization pathways followed by the family‐owned SMEs: a fragmented ownership structure led to traditional internationalization pathway whereas a concentrated ownership base led to born global or born‐again global pathways.

Family entrepreneurs should carefully consider the division of ownership and seek to build new relationships in foreign markets, in addition to their primary co‐operators.

The authors extend the integrative model of small firm internationalization by Bell et al. toward family‐owned SMEs and highlight the most important dimensions in the different internationalization pathways of family SMEs. The ownership dimension is integrated within discussion on differing internationalization pathways. The authors utilize a family business specific perspective (the stewardship perspective), in order to understand the specific features of internationalization among family SMEs, and also how these features differ between family SMEs and other firms.

This article examines the relationship between financial risk management and succession planning in family businesses. Motivated by the Theory of Planned Behaviour, we hypothesize that the use of professional risk management practices is associated with an increased likelihood that businesses adopt professionalized approaches to succession planning. We then investigate if succession planning professionalization is, in turn, positively related to the financial performance of family businesses.

We apply binary probit and ordered dependent variable regressions to unique data generated from a survey sample of Australian family businesses. To check the robustness of our results to potential endogeneity concerns we apply difference tests to propensity score matched sub-samples from our original cohort of respondents.

The results show that, in contrast to verbal or absent succession arrangements, formal written succession plans are both positively associated with the use of financial risk management practices and with superior financial performance in family businesses.

Our arguments and findings suggest that active financial risk management provides a platform for planning succession in family businesses, and that this links with improved short-term financial performance. In light of the critical role that succession plays in ensuring long-term business sustainability, our findings provide important and novel insights into the conditions under which family businesses are most likely to use formal professionalized succession planning.

This study explores how and when intuitive forms of planning can be used in a family firm's succession process.

The study uses an extended focus group meeting, consisting of individual, group and subgroup discussions with seven highly experienced external family business advisors in the Netherlands to gain a holistic understanding of the succession process and its underlying logic. The study also employs pre- and post-group questionnaires.

This study reveals that advisors perceive intuitive forms of planning as an integral part of the succession process, with the latter containing both intuitive and formal logic and activities. Both logics are used situationally and flexibly to deal with the uniqueness and unpredictability of the succession process and to build strong relations and manage relational dynamics in business families to address tasks, dilemmas and contingencies.

The succession process is an important part of business families' achievement of transgenerational intent. Creating commitment among potential successors begins when they are children, and understanding the role of the more intuitive forms of planning during the succession process will provide us with a more holistic perspective on its dynamics.

The importance of succession in family business is well documented and there is general agreement that successful succession represents a key factor in the success or otherwise of individual businesses owned and run by families. The importance of gender in family business succession is a much more recent topic, where initial work has focussed very much on the increasing tendency for women to take on the family business as a successor. Far less research, however, considers the scenario where a female leader passes on the business, whether that takes the form of family succession, a new leader from out with the family or indeed business sale. This dearth of research is not entirely surprising: whilst female leaders in a family business context are not new, their numbers have been relatively small and often mediated through the lens of co-preneurship with a male partner. As women increasingly succeed to and found family businesses however, the gender dimension within family business succession develops and the research response forms the basis for this chapter.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the beliefs held by managers about their roles as facilitators of learning with their employees in a public utilities organisation.

The research was based on Ellinger and Bostrom’s (2002) study on managers’ beliefs on their role as facilitators of learning in learning-orientated firms. Abductive research logic was used in a small sample in depth qualitative study using critical incident interviews.

Managers in the study conveyed strong self-efficacy and outcome beliefs confirming the central role in workplace learning of line managers who adopt a coaching approach. Key new insights were also found in managers’ beliefs on acting as role models within the organisation and their beliefs on the need to manage skills-related organisational risk.

A key limitation of the research is inherent in the use of critical incident technique, as it provides information on the nature of “atypical events” as opposed to more gradual, tacit and typically ongoing learning at work.

The managers’ belief map derived from the data provides a context-specific “target of change” with which to challenge the wider organisation regarding learning facilitation. The research also shows how industry-specific contexts may provide specific pathways for developing managers in their role as facilitators of learning.

The value of the research is twofold: first, providing further validation of the findings from Ellinger and Bostrom’s (2002) research on managers’ beliefs on the effective facilitation of workplace learning; second, additional insights on managerial beliefs regarding role modelling and succession planning are identified, and the implications for management development are discussed.

Many higher education institutions have not invested in leadership succession planning despite suggestions for such action. In this article, the authors discuss the relevance of succession planning to the senior levels of leadership in higher education institutions, proposing that the role of succession planning and accompanying leadership development must be carefully considered based on the internal and external context of an institution. The authors present a modified model of succession planning for the higher education context.

This article includes arguments for and against succession planning and leadership development in higher education using relevant literature and theory.

The literature reviewed highlights the need for each educational institution to find its own optimized mix of external hiring and internal succession planning and leadership development to replace outgoing leaders based upon factors such as the institution's culture, needs, external environment, talent pool, and levels of leadership.

This article makes a unique contribution by questioning succession planning's utility in higher education and guiding practitioners and researchers on the risks and benefits of such practices. The article also provides a model to guide selective implementation of succession planning.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how the organizational change management that characterizes the transitional moments of family businesses may open a transcendental horizon from which a business model arises that is built around the sovereignty of the family institution and must necessarily share the solution of agency problems which emerge as the overlapping between ownership and management recedes, and a management style oriented towards the evolution of the relations between family and business.

Taking its starting point from recent research, the proposed study aims at finding empirical validation of research hypotheses formulated through the development of a factorial analysis and the construction of an innovative model of structural equations able to provide an empirical solution to processes, up to now, left unresolved by management literature on the subject.

By empirically linking stewardship behaviours to capacity to keep the dynastic myth for generations, the authors have demonstrated that stewardship behaviors act as an effective governance mechanism for family businesses in specific change management situations related to the process of generational turnover. Further, the authors provide an important first step in linking theory building with theory testing and conclude the stewardship scale is positioned to play an important role in establishing alignment between the representation of consciousness of family business, in the realization of the self, and extra‐psychological symbolic dimension, in the realization of family history and destiny.

These discussions need to be validated and rendered more generalizable through extensive empirical research. First, though this study drew from cross‐sectional industrial data for the pilot test and then from a more focused industry‐specific sample (validation study), the generalizability of the construct could be a limitation of the stewardship scale. Second, we acknowledge the criticisms associated with a single country sample bias in our sample. A third associated limitation relates to the difficulty of developing a scale to tap individual and firm level behaviors.

Despite much progress, the extant literature on the psychology of strategic management has emphasized the behavioural and cognitive aspects of strategy formulation and implementation at the expense of emotional and affective ones, leading to an inadequate portrayal of strategic management as a series of rational and dispassionate activities. The originality of this empirical study has been to retrace, through the analysis of specific phenomena such as the multigenerational transition which characterize family businesses, the unconscious decisions within the decisional processes, which may transmit the original entrepreneurial dream into an organizational pathway, even in the case of a non‐family succession.