IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v69y2016i11p5111-5116.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

CEO succession in family firms: Stewardship perspective in the pre-succession context

Author

Listed:
  • Chen, Yi-Min
  • Liu, Hsin-Hsien
  • Yang, Yung-Kai
  • Chen, Wei-Hua

Abstract

CEO succession is a key theoretical and empirical issue in the fields of organizations and strategic management. Previous studies investigating the influences and effects of CEO succession mostly focus on post-succession contexts. This study focuses on the pre-succession context and offers a comprehensive theoretical framework based on agency theory and stewardship theory. Specifically, this study empirically tests the influence of several pre-succession factors on the founding CEO's decision to either sell the family firm or hire a professional manager as a successor. The results show that executive compensation schemes and industry dynamism separately influence the degree of stewardship through perceived pay premium and industrial growth potential. The findings help explain CEO succession decision-making in family firms, and provide empirical evidence for the incentive mechanisms between executive compensation schemes, industry dynamism, and professional managers' stewardship behaviors. This study broadens agency theory, stewardship theory, and upper echelons theory's explanation of CEO succession decision-making in family firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Chen, Yi-Min & Liu, Hsin-Hsien & Yang, Yung-Kai & Chen, Wei-Hua, 2016. "CEO succession in family firms: Stewardship perspective in the pre-succession context," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(11), pages 5111-5116.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:69:y:2016:i:11:p:5111-5116
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.04.089
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296316302521
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.04.089?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Morela Hernandez, 2008. "Promoting Stewardship Behavior in Organizations: A Leadership Model," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 80(1), pages 121-128, June.
    2. Danny Miller & Isabelle Le Breton‐Miller & Barry Scholnick, 2008. "Stewardship vs. Stagnation: An Empirical Comparison of Small Family and Non‐Family Businesses," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(1), pages 51-78, January.
    3. Ayse Karaevli, 2007. "Performance consequences of new CEO ‘Outsiderness’: Moderating effects of pre‐ and post‐succession contexts," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(7), pages 681-706, July.
    4. Sudip Datta & Mai Iskandar-Datta, 2014. "Upper-echelon executive human capital and compensation: Generalist vs specialist skills," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(12), pages 1853-1866, December.
    5. Carola Frydman & Dirk Jenter, 2010. "CEO Compensation," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 2(1), pages 75-102, December.
    6. Yi-Min Chen & Feng-Jyh Lin, 2010. "The Persistence of Superior Performance at Industry and Firm Levels: Evidence from the IT Industry in Taiwan," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(5), pages 469-486.
    7. Raymond Vernon, 1966. "International Investment and International Trade in the Product Cycle," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 80(2), pages 190-207.
    8. Wei Shen & Albert A. Cannella,, 2003. "Will succession planning increase shareholder wealth? evidence from investor reactions to relay CEO successions," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(2), pages 191-198, February.
    9. Chen, Yi-Min & Liu, Hsin-Hsien & Ni, Yu-Ting & Wu, Meng-Fen, 2015. "A rational normative model of international expansion: Strategic intent perspective, market positions, and founder CEOs/family-successor CEOs," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(7), pages 1539-1543.
    10. Timothy J. Quigley & Donald C. Hambrick, 2015. "Has the “CEO effect” increased in recent decades? A new explanation for the great rise in America's attention to corporate leaders," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(6), pages 821-830, June.
    11. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    12. Chen, Yi-Min & Liu, Hsin-Hsien & Wu, Hsin-Yi, 2016. "Reputation for toughness and anti-dumping rebuttals: Competitive rivalry, perceived benefits, and stage of the product life cycle," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(6), pages 2145-2150.
    13. Timothy J. Quigley & Donald C. Hambrick, 2012. "When the former ceo stays on as board chair: effects on successor discretion, strategic change, and performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(7), pages 834-859, July.
    14. Lex Donaldson & James H. Davis, 1991. "Stewardship Theory or Agency Theory: CEO Governance and Shareholder Returns," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 16(1), pages 49-64, June.
    15. Robert R. Wiggins & Timothy W. Ruefli, 2005. "Schumpeter's ghost: Is hypercompetition making the best of times shorter?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(10), pages 887-911, October.
    16. Elizabeth E. Bailey & Constance E. Helfat, 2003. "External management succession, human capital, and firm performance: an integrative analysis," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(4), pages 347-369.
    17. Edward J. Zajac, 1990. "Ceo selection, succession, compensation and firm performance: A theoretical integration and empirical analysis," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(3), pages 217-230, March.
    18. Sea-Jin Chang & Jungwook Shim, 2015. "When does transitioning from family to professional management improve firm performance?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(9), pages 1297-1316, September.
    19. Daniel Han Ming Chng & Matthew S. Rodgers & Eric Shih & Xiao‐Bing Song, 2012. "When does incentive compensation motivate managerial behaviors? An experimental investigation of the fit between incentive compensation, executive core self‐evaluation, and firm performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(12), pages 1343-1362, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lu, Yun & Ntim, Collins G. & Zhang, Qingjing & Li, Pingli, 2022. "Board of directors’ attributes and corporate outcomes: A systematic literature review and future research agenda," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    2. Kodama, Naomi & Murakami, Yoshiaki & Tanaka, Mari, 2021. "No Successor, No Success? Impact of a Little Son on Business Performance," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    3. Laura Zapata-Cantu & Ramón Sanguino & Ascensión Barroso & Laura Nicola-Gavrilă, 2023. "Family Business Adapting a New Digital-Based Economy: Opportunities and Challenges for Future Research," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 14(1), pages 408-425, March.
    4. Cunha, Miguel Pina e & Rego, Arménio & Clegg, Stewart & Jarvis, Walter P., 2021. "Stewardship as process: A paradox perspective," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 247-259.
    5. Lude, Maximilian & Prügl, Reinhard, 2018. "Why the family business brand matters: Brand authenticity and the family firm trust inference," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 121-134.
    6. Peng Xu & Guiyu Bai, 2019. "Board Governance, Sustainable Innovation Capability and Corporate Expansion: Empirical Data from Private Listed Companies in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-17, June.
    7. Liu, Fangyi, 2021. "Family business succession roadblock model based on fuzzy linguistic preference relations," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    8. Mahto, Raj V. & Vora, Gautam & McDowell, William C. & Khanin, Dmitry, 2020. "Family member commitment, the opportunity costs of staying, and turnover intentions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 9-19.
    9. Jara, Mauricio & López-Iturriaga, Félix J. & Torres, Juan Pablo, 2021. "Firm value and pyramidal structures: New evidence for family firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 399-412.
    10. Azizi, Mohammad & Salmani Bidgoli, Masoud & Maley, Jane F. & Dabić, Marina, 2022. "A stewardship perspective in family firms: A new perspective for altruism and social capital," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 764-775.
    11. Norazlin Ahmad & Irene Wei Kiong Ting & Imen Tebourbi & Qian Long Kweh, 2022. "Non-linearity between family control and firm financial sustainability: moderating effects of CEO tenure and education," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 12(4), pages 719-741, December.
    12. Waldkirch, Matthias, 2020. "Non-family CEOs in family firms: Spotting gaps and challenging assumptions for a future research agenda," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 11(1).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ahrens, Jan-Philipp & Uhlaner, Lorraine & Woywode, Michael & Zybura, Jan, 2018. "“Shadow emperor” or “loyal paladin”? – The Janus face of previous owner involvement in family firm successions," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 73-90.
    2. Ayse Karaevli & Edward J. Zajac, 2013. "When Do Outsider CEOs Generate Strategic Change? The Enabling Role of Corporate Stability," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(7), pages 1267-1294, November.
    3. Islam, Md Ariful & Hossain, Shahadat & Singh, Harjinder & Sultana, Nigar, 2021. "Outsider CEOs and corporate debt," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    4. Jan-Philipp Ahrens & Andrea Calabrò & Jolien Huybrechts & Michael Woywode, 2019. "The Enigma of the Family Successor–Firm Performance Relationship: A Methodological Reflection and Reconciliation Attempt," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 43(3), pages 437-474, May.
    5. Caspar Rose, 2019. "Stock market reactions to CEO succession announcements: inside versus outside recruitment?," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 23(1), pages 33-65, March.
    6. Alessandro Minichilli & Mattias Nordqvist & Guido Corbetta & Mario Daniele Amore, 2014. "CEO Succession Mechanisms, Organizational Context, and Performance: A Socio-Emotional Wealth Perspective on Family-Controlled Firms," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(7), pages 1153-1179, November.
    7. A. Ashwin & Rishikesha Krishnan & Rejie George, 2015. "Family firms in India: family involvement, innovation and agency and stewardship behaviors," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 32(4), pages 869-900, December.
    8. Masatoshi Kato & Yuji Honjo, 2020. "CEO Succession and New-Firm Performance: Does Successor Origin Matter?," Discussion Paper Series 213, School of Economics, Kwansei Gakuin University.
    9. Cho, Jaeyoung & Miller, Danny & Lee, Jangwoo, 2018. "Too much of a good thing: Family involvement and the survival of listed Korean firms," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 9(4), pages 223-237.
    10. Azizi, Mohammad & Salmani Bidgoli, Masoud & Maley, Jane F. & Dabić, Marina, 2022. "A stewardship perspective in family firms: A new perspective for altruism and social capital," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 764-775.
    11. Astrachan, Joseph H., 2010. "Strategy in family business: Toward a multidimensional research agenda," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 6-14, March.
    12. Goergen, Marc & Limbach, Peter & Scholz-Daneshgari, Meik, 2020. "Firms' rationales for CEO duality: Evidence from a mandatory disclosure regulation," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    13. Camelia-Daniela Hategan & Ruxandra-Ioana Curea-Pitorac & Vasile-Petru Hategan, 2019. "The Romanian Family Businesses Philosophy for Performance and Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-22, March.
    14. Sebastian Goebel & Barbara E. Weißenberger, 2017. "Effects of management control mechanisms: towards a more comprehensive analysis," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 87(2), pages 185-219, February.
    15. Anne Amar-Sabbah & Pierre Batteau, 2018. "CEO Compensation: Agency Theory is Irrelevant but not the Neoclassical Game-Theoretic Framework," Working Papers halshs-01818600, HAL.
    16. Purkayastha, Saptarshi & Veliyath, Rajaram & George, Rejie, 2022. "Type I and type II agency conflicts in family firms: An empirical investigation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 285-299.
    17. Suess, Julia, 2014. "Family governance – Literature review and the development of a conceptual model," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 5(2), pages 138-155.
    18. Uchida, Hirofumi & Yamada, Kazuo & Zazzaro, Alberto, 2023. "Management innovations in family firms after CEO successions: Evidence from Japanese SMEs," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    19. Pittino, Daniel & Barroso Martínez, Ascensión & Chirico, Francesco & Sanguino Galván, Ramón, 2018. "Psychological ownership, knowledge sharing and entrepreneurial orientation in family firms: The moderating role of governance heterogeneity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 312-326.
    20. Dedman, Elisabeth, 2016. "CEO succession in the UK: An analysis of the effect of censuring the CEO-to-chair move in the Combined Code on Corporate Governance 2003," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 359-378.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:69:y:2016:i:11:p:5111-5116. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.