Parenting the Successor: It Starts at Home and Leaves an Enduring Impact on the Family Business

Kristen K. Shanine, Kristen Madison, James G. Combs and Kimberly A. Eddleston

Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 2023, vol. 47, issue 4, 1093-1131

Abstract: Transferring leadership across generations is a defining characteristic of family businesses. Yet many successors underperform, and little is known about why. We extend parental control theory to develop a model of parenting effects in family businesses. Primary dyadic data from successors and subordinates in 119 family businesses, supplemented with 24 interviews with family business leaders, shows that predecessors’ parenting style affects successors’ psychological functioning, which impacts employees’ citizenship and counterproductive behaviors. Among firms that make it to the second generation, the seeds of success are partially sown long before succession takes place, drawing attention to the important role of parenting.

Keywords: family business; succession; parenting styles; parental control theory; impostor phenomenon; psychological well-being; organizational citizenship behaviors; counterproductive work behaviors; psychological entitlement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:entthe:v:47:y:2023:i:4:p:1093-1131

DOI: 10.1177/10422587221088772

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