Negotiating the female successor–leader role within family business succession in China

Huiping Xian,Maura Mcadam,Nan Jiang

doi:10.1177/0266242620960711

Abstract

This article explores the approaches of identity construction used by Chinese daughters while negotiating the successor–leader role within family businesses. A qualitative interpretivist approach was adopted to understand daughter views on gender, family business leadership and succession, as well as the approaches adopted to negotiate the role of female successor/leader in the Chinese family business. Twenty semi-structured interviews were conducted with both actual and potential female successors. Three approaches of identity construction emerged based on the degree of conformity to traditional gender roles and Confucian family values: first, to abide by conventional gender expectations and perceive themselves as a temporary leader; second, to act as the ‘second leader’ and remain involved in decision making and third, to challenge conventional gender roles and strive to be an independent leader. This article contributes to debates on women in family business and gendered identity construction of daughters in family business in the Chinese context.

Highlights

Introduction‘owner-manager’ narrative (Hamilton, 2006; Nelson and Constantinidis, 2017)
It is widely acknowledged that the family business and, to a larger extent, the wider entrepreneurial discourse have a gender-biased theoretical focus that endorses a dominance of a heroic, maleInternational Small Business Journal: Researching Entrepreneurship 39(2)‘owner-manager’ narrative (Hamilton, 2006; Nelson and Constantinidis, 2017)
Three different approaches to constructing a leadership identity were conceptualised among the female successors, with each approach dependent on the degree of conformity to traditional gender roles and family values in the succession process in their family business

Summary

Introduction

‘owner-manager’ narrative (Hamilton, 2006; Nelson and Constantinidis, 2017) This has resulted in women in family businesses for the most part, being invisible (Dumas, 1992, 1998), identified by their family roles (Jimenez, 2009), or seen as occupying secondary or supporting roles (Danes and Olson, 2003; Rowe and Hong, 2000), with their contributions marginalised (Hamilton, 2006; Jimenez, 2009). We argue that understanding this context has theoretical significance, as gender is ‘done’, and sons and daughters ‘see’ themselves in reference to their families, businesses and society (Nelson and Constantinidis, 2017). Contrary to studies that view gender as an objective difference between male and female, that can be measured and used as an explanatory variable, we see gender as socially coconstructed through interaction with other actors and as a performance, produced through everyday practices (Hamilton, 2013)

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion