Authors
David W Williams, Michelle L Zorn, T Russell Crook, James G Combs
Publication date
2013/7
Journal
Family Relations
Volume
62
Issue
3
Pages
415-428
Publisher
Wiley Subscription Services, Inc.
Description
Recent family business research has focused on transgenerational intent (TI)—the plan to pass management of the business to future generations—as a defining characteristic of family firms. We theorize that TI is influenced by the current leader's consideration of factors related to three subsystems (business, ownership, and family) that underlie the family business system. Specifically, we hypothesize that characteristics of the business (the age and size of the firm), the owners (gender and minority status), and the family, specifically the family's engagement in the firm (time until succession and the family's role in advising the CEO) influence the current leader's TI. Results based on a survey of over 700 family‐managed firms are largely supportive of our hypotheses. Understanding what affects TI will help advance researchers' efforts to develop a theory of the family firm.
Scholar articles
DW Williams, ML Zorn, T Russell Crook, JG Combs - Family Relations, 2013