The Early Succession Stage of a Family Firm: Exploring the Role of Agency Rationales and Stewardship Attitudes

This article examines the early succession stage of a public family firm through a single longitudinal real-time case study conducted over a period of 10 years. We found that, at this stage, the regulation of interdependent conflicts of interest (between family and nonfamily shareholders, and between majority and minority family shareholders) is a prominent objective of the incumbent generation in the purpose of preparing both the firm and the family to facilitate succession. Moreover, we suggest that stewardship, through reciprocal altruism at the family branch level, combined with a permanent collaborative process between generations and a flexible succession plan explains at least partially the observed outcomes (shared vision on future ownership and control, and new family firm governance and interfamily branch relationships).