Father-Daughter Succession in Family Business

Family firms play and are likely to continue to play a vital role in the global economy and many family owned firms are far from small. One of the events that can and does disrupt the smooth evolution of such businesses is generation transition and succession. In numerous high profile cases such as the Ford and DuPont families, succession problems have deeply and dramatically affected both the businesses and families involved. In this very focused research-based study the authors examine the increasing involvement of women in leadership roles in family firms and how daughters are now so often rising through the ranks to take over successful family businesses when their fathers are reaching the end of their careers as active entrepreneurs. With case studies from almost every continent, Father-Daughter Succession in Family Business looks at the cultural and other changes that have led to daughters gaining influence in more and more family businesses and the tensions this produces between old notions of how men and women should behave and the new style of leadership that often comes about when a woman takes the helm. The case studies included here comprise revealing narrative accounts from the daughters who succeeded their entrepreneur fathers in a wide variety of challenging situations, many of which involve cultural contexts beyond the North American and European ones in which research has already established that women can and do perform as well as or better than men in many leadership situations. Increasingly, entrepreneurs contemplating retirement look to consultants and others for help with managing succession. It is also increasingly recognized that in business education the socio-cultural aspects of entrepreneurialism have to be addressed. This book will help consultants, business educators, and researchers, as well as those who are themselves involved in significant family managed enterprises to better understand why it can no longer be assumed in any part of the World that the first born son will necessarily take over the reins of the family business.