Inter-generational governance transition in Chinese family businesses: Relational or contractual?

Yuheng Hu, Jiong Wu and Lei Zhu

International Review of Economics & Finance, 2024, vol. 95, issue C

Abstract: Inter-generational succession in family enterprises influences internal governance models, and their relationship is mediated by the successor's socialization process. Drawing on the enterprise capability theory, the author employed a survey method to examine the relationship between cognitive assets held by family enterprise successors and two governance modes. The findings confirm that tacit knowledge, relational networks, and entrepreneurial spirit among family enterprise successors positively influence their socialization roles, thereby triggering governance adaptation. Specifically, relational governance is continuously strengthened, while contractual governance exhibits an inverted U-shaped trend. Organizational conventions play a positively moderating role in this influencing process. This study extends the application boundaries of enterprise capability theory, deepens the understanding of enterprise cognitive systems, enriches the literature on the relationship between relational and contractual governance, and provides theoretical foundations for inter-generational governance in family enterprises.

Keywords: Relational governance; Contractual governance; Family business; Inter-generational succession (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1059056024004854
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:reveco:v:95:y:2024:i:c:s1059056024004854

DOI: 10.1016/j.iref.2024.103493

Access Statistics for this article

International Review of Economics & Finance is currently edited by H. Beladi and C. Chen

More articles in International Review of Economics & Finance from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().