The apple doesn't fall far from the tree: Parenting styles and its effects on family business succession intentions

Abstract

This research integrates the parenting style literature and the Theory of Planned Behaviour to investigate the influence of authoritarian and authoritative parenting styles on the succession intentions of next-generation family members. Through a survey of 179 next-generation family members in Chinese family businesses, our research shows that authoritative parenting positively influences succession intentions sequentially through subjective norms of family business succession and perceived behavioural control or attitude toward family business succession. In contrast, sequential mediation relationships are not supported for authoritarian parenting. Follow-up twenty-one interviews not only confirm our survey results but also provide further explanations for the unsupported relationships between authoritarian parenting and succession intentions.