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This study delves into the aspirations of young individuals to assume leadership roles in their family businesses. It assesses the impact of family embeddedness and the perception of positive family business performance on succession intentions and investigates potential gender differences in this context.

Hierarchical multiple regression was determined for utilizing a sample of university students in seven countries from the Middle East–North African (MENA) region (N = 3,908).

The present study’s findings suggest that embeddedness in the family business has a much stronger role in shaping the succession intentions than previously envisioned. Females are more inclined to take over the family business when they perceive that the family business is not performing well.

This study provides important insights into the dynamic of family business succession intentions and family embeddedness. By providing a better understanding of some of the key drivers of family business succession intentions, it enables families in the MENA region to develop better family plans to engage with their successors effectively.

The complexity of succession in family firms is multifaceted and can sometimes lead to turbulence. While structured succession strategies offer a roadmap for smoother transitions, intergenerational differences in family small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can lead to varied interpretations of an effective succession blueprint. This study synergizes the strategic entrepreneurship framework with the socioemotional wealth (SEW) perspective to probe into how formalized succession planning impacts performance in family SMEs. Furthermore, it delves into the mediating role of succession satisfaction, especially in family firms characterized by pronounced SEW and helmed by CEOs from different generational cohorts.

Employing a comprehensive dataset from 1,833 global family businesses, this research utilizes bootstrapping regression models to discern the intertwined effects of mediator and moderator variables and their statistical significance.

The main findings suggest that succession satisfaction does matter for a good succession process and that succession plans work only in family firms with a high degree of SEW and that are led by older family CEOs (e.g. baby boomers).

The results offer fresh perspectives on succession processes, with a particular focus on how to improve the satisfaction of millennial family CEOs.

The study uniquely combines strategic entrepreneurship and SEW to offer a holistic view of succession planning, highlighting satisfaction’s mediating role and SEW’s moderating influence. Additionally, it pioneers the incorporation of generational cohorts into the succession discourse.

This paper aims to explore the succession intentions of daughters in family businesses in Sri Lanka by shedding light on the motives behind their willingness to succeed in the family business.

A qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews was used to explore the factors that may influence succession intentions among a group of seven prospective successor-daughters.

Findings showed that while a majority of the daughters sampled have positive succession intentions, there were a few who were either undecided or unwilling. Interestingly, what motivated some daughters to be willing successors was also considered demotivating for others. Daughters perceived succession in family businesses to be impacted by both personal and family background, traditional gender-role expectations and other socio-cultural factors.

Findings from this study provide key insights into gender-related issues with regard to succession in family businesses.

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. The authors also examine the moderating role of successor characteristics (i.e. education and previous work experience) on this relationship.

The ideas were tested using data from 151 publicly listed family firms in China.

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.

The results point to the importance of the preparation of the next generation in helping family firms navigate unplanned successions. The findings indicate that education and previous work experience of the successor can help a family firm manage a crisis.

This study continues to build the understanding about unplanned successions and the important role that successor preparation can have for the success of the family firm.

This study explores the different survival strategies employed by family-owned small and medium-sized businesses in Nigeria. The study delves into the dynamics of ensuring business continuity from founders to successors and identifies the success factors that can facilitate seamless leadership transition outcomes.

This study utilised a qualitative multiple-case study approach, with the population consisting of founders from three medium-sized family businesses in Nigeria. Semi-structured interviews were the primary data collection tool used in the study. Furthermore, company documents were analysed to gain further insights into the leadership transition strategies employed in the selected businesses.

Successful transition and survival of family businesses are dependent on the founder's desire and support for transition, successor preparation, building trust and credibility in successors, and instilling a clear vision for the business.

The study's findings will provide valuable insights to leaders of family-owned SMEs, specifically in the development of effective leadership transition action plans. It should be noted that the study is limited to three family-owned businesses in two locations in Nigeria, which may restrict the generalisability of the findings. Despite this, the study offers novel contributions to the current literature by presenting practical strategies for achieving the survival of family businesses in an emerging economy.

This study proposed strategies for business survival, continuity, sustainability and seamless leadership transition for small and medium-sized family-owned businesses. Importantly, the study recommends action plans for present and prospective family business leaders to deepen succession pathways.

This study aims to analyze how the presence of women is seen in family small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) succession process from the successors' perspective.

To do so, the multiple case study method (qualitative approach) was used: five Brazilian SMEs and three Portuguese SMEs, and the data-collecting techniques were the online interview and documentary analysis. Data analysis was through content analysis using NVivo software.

The empirical evidence obtained led to the conclusion that the natural succession process is predominant in the family SMEs studied here. Although succession planning is present in some firms, these plans are informal and not rigid as regards deadlines. Nor do they present stages and tasks that could be considered as a planned succession.

The study shows that successors do not see gender as a relevant criterion for the choice of successor. It is concluded that women's participation in family SME succession, even to a lesser extent, is still marked by gender inequality. So, this study provides directions to policymakers and researchers to focus on developmental programmes for the presence of women in family SMEs' succession process.

Although some successors consider that these firms' performance may be different due to gender characteristics, others emphasize that management is the same. Therefore, this study provides the futuristic direction to policymakers, researchers and educators for focusing on the enhancement of women entrepreneurs which plays a crucial role in the family SMEs' succession process. Therefore, a conceptual framework is proposed that explains the articulation of different categories to understand the gender perspective in family firms' succession.

Drawing on the social cognitive theory, this research examines the relationship of perceived parental support factors and the next-generation succession intention in the family business regarding the mediating effect of family business self-efficacy factors.

This study uses the structural equation modelling method to analyse 16,521 cases from the global university entrepreneurial students' spirit survey (GUESSS) 2018 project.

This study provides evidence that parental support can influence the family business self-efficacy of the next-generation members, leading to succession intention of the family business. However, having high self-efficacy towards non-family members does not necessarily increase next-generation members' intention to engage in family business succession.

This research lacks information about the next-generation's perception of parental psychological control, which is needed to examine the model of next-generation engagement more comprehensively in the family business.

Attempting to complement the family business literature, this study provides evidence about the determinants of next-generation members' succession intention and extends prior discussions on family business self-efficacy.

The aim of the paper is to identify the key factors that affect Guinean family business (FB) succession planning. The study also evaluates the impact of these factors on the succession planning process to ensure business continuity.

This descriptive quantitative research is based on a survey of 383 family businesses FBs in Conakry, the capital city of Guinea. The structural equation model (SEM) was used to analyze and validate the model featuring factors that influence family business FB succession planning (FBSP). The Theory of Stewardess and the Theory of FB Rivalry have been employed in the study.

While the incumbent attributes, firm attributes, and estate tax were revealed to have no significant influence on succession planning, the successor attributes and the family relationship significantly affected succession planning. Besides, undesirable domestic relationships among children of different mothers from polygamous families had an indirect impact on business succession planning.

The limitations of the study include the population of the FBs being restricted only to those located in Conakry, the capital city. The study did not consider other regions and cities of Guinea. Besides, the grouping of attributes or characteristics was problematic, and studying each attribute separately as an independent variable would be much better. Finally, the limited literature and available data on Guinean FBs in general and succession planning generalize the findings to be done cautiously. Therefore, more studies are needed on FB succession in the country to further confirm these findings.

The study may help ensure social solidarity based on the findings of factors associated to polygamous families in relation to businesses.

Few studies have been done on FBs in Conakry. Besides, putting attributes or characteristics into categories has been presented. Moreover, there is inadequate relevant literature and data on Guinean FBSP. Considering these limitations, the generalization of the findings should be done with caution. Therefore, this study touched on the issue of family business succession in Guinea which substantiates the findings.

This paper investigates the impact of family influence measured by the F-PEC scale on private enterprise (both family firms and lone founders) leadership succession strategy.

The research dataset is comprised of 390 private enterprises whose head offices were situated in the voivodeships of Lower Silesia and Wielkopolska in Poland. The authors collected data through CAPI (computer-assisted personal interviewing) method, as well as through comprehensive, structured interviews with company owners. Data were analysed using hierarchical logistic regression for each type of succession strategy.

The results suggest that increased family influence does not necessarily lead to intra-family leadership succession in private enterprises. Importantly, a range of findings contradicted authors' predictions. The relationship between the overall F-PEC scale values signifying the multi-faceted family influence over the business and the choice of internal successor was weakly negative for the total sample; also, the higher the overlap between family and business values and the higher the commitment to family business, as evidenced by the Culture subscale, the lower was the occurrence of intra-family successor choice in the population of lone founders. The Culture subscale also increased the prevalence of lack of succession planning in the sample of lone founders.

While several studies suggests that family firms may be more prone to choose an intra-family succession scenario, it remains unclear how lower levels of business and succession experience, may influence the successor choice. Indeed, some studies suggest that a strong family influence over a business, may stimulate family firms to choose a family outsider as a business leader. Therefore, the key contribution of this study is contextualizing the response to an ongoing succession debate. This study investigates the strategic choices of companies in the first generation of ownership operating in Poland, which serves as an example of a post-transition economy. While the characteristics of this economic environment may be unique, the authors discuss how the surprising findings may add to the understanding of the general succession processes present in private enterprises.

Drawing on the theory of planned behaviour, this research aims to investigate systemically if and how incumbents and successors share attitudes, social norms and perception of the feasibility of their business succession.

Qualitative research carried out on a group of small Italian family firms (N = 10).

This study provides evidence of background mechanisms (attitudes, social norms and perception of feasibility) affecting the implementation of business succession planning in family SMEs. Moreover, this study provides further evidence supporting the role of social norms in strategic decision-making processes within family firms.

Findings from this study contribute to current literature in multiple ways and have several research implications.

This study highlights that it is more appropriate to adopt a systemic rather than an individualistic approach in investigating/managing business succession.

Family firms are the most widespread type of firms in the world; thus, a systematic failure in business transmission represents a prominent socioeconomical problem for policy-makers and institutions.

This study leads to further developments in exploring business succession from a psychological point of view. Findings also highlight the limits of how a theory applied in order to predict individual behaviour can provide insight into collective behaviour involving a family.