How does an intra-family succession effect strategic change and performance in China's family firms?

摘要

Motivated by the sparse literature on succession dynamics in China and other transitional markets we consider the effects of initiating an intra-family leadership succession on firm strategic change and performance on a sample of publicly listed family firms from China. Grounded in upper echelons theory we find that the initiation of a succession process leads to significant strategic change. Based on generational differences between founders and successors we find the succession-strategic change relationship is positively moderated by a successor's international education. We also consider the strategic change to performance relationship.