The impact of market and industry risk on family succession

Abstract

This study investigates the succession decision of family firms in connection with the risk environment faced by the firm. Succession itself can rightly be considered a risk event due to managerial uncertainty. This uncertainty coupled with a high risk operating environment magnifies the critical importance of making a correct succession decision. In this paper, the primary focus is on how market and industry risk influence the selection of either a family member or a family external professional as the successor, and how this decision impacts post-succession firm performance. Our sample is comprised of 383 succession events in Taiwanese listed companies over a twenty-year period (1997–2016). Using industrial profitability risk and systematic risk as the risk measures, we find that firms operating in a high-risk environment tend to employ a non-family member as the successor which on average leads to superior post-succession performance compared to firms that choose a family member as the successor. This result particularly holds when the non-family successor is able to successfully reduce firm-level risk. Overall, our results demonstrate that the risk condition of a firm is an important determinant of the succession decision of family firms, and that a non-family successor is more competent in managing a high-risk operating environment.