Family and non-family priorities in family firms: Preliminary evidence

A large portion of the family business literature is devoted to succession and other issues related to family members. Our survey indicates that issues concerning. non-family managers are as important as succession planning to family firms. Based on our review of the literature and the results obtained; we conclude that family business researchers have not paid enough attention to these issues. We also present exploratory results showing how firm characteristics may influence the different concerns. Specifically, we find the concern about issues related to non-family managers to be affected by the size of the business, the number of non-family managers in the business, and the preponderance of non-family managers among the potential successors.