Abstract
This study builds on implementation intention theory to indicate that both business and family governance practices influence the succession planning process in family firms. In addition, this study draws on goal adjustment theory to explore whether the family CEO’s emotions, being his or her inability to let go of the family firm, hamper the governance decisions of the board of directors concerning that succession planning process. Applying a moderated mediation analysis on a sample of 225 family firms, results show that board involvement in the succession process mediates the positive relationship between the use of family governance practices and the level of succession planning. In addition, the family CEO’s inability to let go negatively moderates this mediating relationship which signifies that emotions influence governance outcomes in family firms.
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Notes
Six family firms indicate that they have a board of advisors but no board of directors. As there is no clear content-wise difference between the role of a board of directors and the role of a board of advisors in Belgian family firms, these firms are included in the sample.
As a robustness check, we re-performed the analysis with each of the four succession planning components alternately as a dependent variable. Results are the same except for the post-succession role of the departing incumbent for which the mediating effect was not statistically significant (p = 0.11).
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Umans, I., Lybaert, N., Steijvers, T. et al. Succession planning in family firms: family governance practices, board of directors, and emotions. Small Bus Econ 54, 189–207 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-018-0078-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-018-0078-5