A Comparison of Successor Development in Family and Nonfamily Businesses

Abstract

Although many streams of management research address leadership, succession, and executive development issues, significant gaps in the literature remain. In particular, few studies have systematically explored the systems by which the future leaders (successors) of family firms are developed. This research presents a descriptive study in which the successor development approaches of small to medium-sized family and nonfamily firms are compared. The findings indicate that (1) family firms favor more personal, relationship-centered approaches to successor development; (2) nonfamily firms prefer formalized, task-oriented development approaches; and (3) company size has no real effect on successor development.