Gender-related factors in family business succession: a systematic literature review

Abstract

Succession is one of the most discussed topics in family business research. However, despite the changing professional and family roles of women and the growing number of female CEOs worldwide, published works in the body of literature have relatively little to say on the role of gender in succession. The article reviews the recent development in the literature related to women in intergenerational succession in family businesses with the aim of systematizing gender-related factors affecting intra-family succession, and also proposes directions for future research. Based on a sample of 35 studies published between 2005 and 2017, this paper categorizes the gender-related factors found in the literature into three categories: environment and context, people, and processes. Subsequently, the paper summarizes the current state-of-the-art in light of these three categories. Since the research on the role of gender in succession is fragmented and lacks an overall direction, we present multiple directions for future research. The present review contributes to the body of literature on the development of family business by comprehensively systematizing existing gender-related factors affecting succession.