Female Succession in Family Businesses: Elements of Success

A family business is a type of enterprise in which family owners ‘exercise substantial influence over the business’ (Gomez-Mejia et al. The Academy of Management Annals, 5(1), 653–707, 2011). Family businesses are a dominant force in today’s global economy, especially in the Italian tradition. The process by which business continuity is ensured in family businesses is represented by succession. Because of the difficulties in managing this highly complex and emotional process (Matthews et al. Family Business Review, 12(2), 159–170, 1999), it has been difficult to establish generalisable theories of succession. Many studies confirm that succession in family businesses is a male-dominated process, in the sense that it is generally biased against women, particularly daughters, but also against any family member who is not male (Ip and Jacobs. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 13(3), 326–350, 2006). In family businesses, women have traditionally played many subtle roles: spouse, parent, father-in-law, family leader. These roles are related to the family rather than to the business (Ward and Sorenson. Nation’s Business, ll(77), 40–41, 1989). At the same time, an important numerical increase in the number of women’s businesses in 2022 with an overall increase of 22.2% compared to 2021, recording 19,662 successful applications or 6.9% of the total. This change subjects female succession to special attention and stimulates curiosity on the subject. The soul of this research is to investigate which elements influence the outcome of female succession. The relevant evidence of the paper is related to a better understanding of the debate on “Gender and Family Business”. Considering that female entrepreneurship is considered central to the development and welfare of economies, a deeper understanding of how women entrepreneurs experience the succession process in their favour can contribute to improving the effectiveness of policies aimed at promoting the participation of women entrepreneurs in the economy.