The soft landing: Does intrafamily succession matter for corporate risk-taking?

Xiaojia Zheng, Bing Zhu and Ge Yang

Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, 2023, vol. 78, issue C

Abstract: Succession has been recognized as one key challenge to family firms. To manage succession risks, founders aiming for intrafamily succession might adopt risk-averse strategies in advance. Using a sample of A-share listed family firms in China, we find that family firms with apparent family successors are indeed more risk-averse than those without such successors: the former group has fewer investments in research and development (R&D), lower debt, more cash holdings, and less volatile earnings than the latter. These effects are weaker for firms in a more market-oriented environment, firms with stronger family control, or firms faced with more intense market competition. Further analyses show that the reduced risk-taking for intrafamily succession is stronger when successors have been involved in family businesses. Firms with male successors are also more risk-averse than those with female successors except in R&D investments. By illustrating that founders proactively curb firm risks to increase risk capacity for family successors, this paper not only contributes to the literature on family succession, but also extends the literature about determinants of corporate risk-taking decisions.

Keywords: Family firms; Family succession; Corporate risk-taking; Heir recognition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G32 G41 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:pacfin:v:78:y:2023:i:c:s0927538x23000331

DOI: 10.1016/j.pacfin.2023.101967

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