Succession is one of the most discussed topics in family business research. However, despite the changing professional and family roles of women and the growing number of female CEOs worldwide, published works in the body of literature have relatively little to say on the role of gender in succession. The article reviews the recent development in the literature related to women in intergenerational succession in family businesses with the aim of systematizing gender-related factors affecting intra-family succession, and also proposes directions for future research. Based on a sample of 35 studies published between 2005 and 2017, this paper categorizes the gender-related factors found in the literature into three categories: environment and context, people, and processes. Subsequently, the paper summarizes the current state-of-the-art in light of these three categories. Since the research on the role of gender in succession is fragmented and lacks an overall direction, we present multiple directions for future research. The present review contributes to the body of literature on the development of family business by comprehensively systematizing existing gender-related factors affecting succession.

Through a systematic literature review, we assess the current state of research on intrafamily conflicts in family firms, systematize the findings, and outline avenues for future research. Based on a review of 88 studies, we develop an input–process–output framework to synthesize input, process, output, and context variables and identify research gaps. The review contributes to the family business literature by bridging the family business and intragroup conflict literature, considering multiple levels of analysis (the individual, family, and firm), and presenting relevant research questions.

Abstract. Theory suggests that low ownership concentration is associated with agency costs and highly concentrated ownership structures induce controlling owners to pursue private benefits. Both situations are likely to be associated with negative effects on corporate performance. A number of studies have tested the relationship between ownership concentration and performance empirically, failing to provide any consistent results. While most research has been devoted to study cases of developed countries, the literature on Central and Eastern European countries does not provide better perspectives. The goal of this paper is to explore the relationship between ownership concentration and performance in the case of Czech firms. The research sample contains 34,284 companies and their financial data in the period of 2007-2015. Using linear regression analysis, an inverted U-shaped relationship was found between the Herfindahl index and profitability while controlling for firm size, capital structure, and industry affiliation. No evidence of a linear relationship. Based on one of the largest samples of firms, it is suggested that more concentrated ownership reduces the principal-agent problem and supports performance, but only to a certain extent, where the potential principal-principal problem can still prevail. Moreover, performance is maximized when there is a controlling owner. The findings can be used by policy makers when designing ownership structures.

Over the last decade, a growing number of developing and emerging countries have begun addressing corporate governance practice and issued a national governance code. This paper analyses and compares the code contents and approaches of the 11 developing and emerging countries after the latest revision of the OECD Principles of Corporate Governance to examine whether these countries follow the international best practice despite the national specifics differ from those of developed countries. Individual codes are subjected to content analysis to evaluate the level of compliance with the OECD Principles. This paper goes beyond the well-known particulars of developed markets and provides a rare insight into the development of corporate governance frameworks in the developing and emerging countries in a crosscountry manner. We contribute to recognition and assessment of good corporate governance in developing and emerging countries and examine what impact the OECD Principles have had beyond its membership base of high-developed countries.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the process of seeking advice in family firms.Design/methodology/approachExploratory multiple case study design was employed to examine how family firm owners use various sources of advice. The analysis is based on data collected from semi-structured interviews with six Czech family business owners.FindingsThe case study analysis shows that family business owners first seek advice among those family members who work in the family firm. Subsequently, they approach internal or external sources with whom they have a specific relationship (management and key employees, peers and professional associations). Only when these sources do not provide adequate results, external advisors are approached. However, if the advice required a specific knowledge or certification, external advisors may be approached in the first place.Originality/valueBased on the qualitative data analysis, we developed a model of the advice-seeking process. Since the theoretical “how” of the advising process in family firms is still underresearched, this study presents theoretical extensions as well as practical implications.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse corporate governance codes in the member states of the European Union (EU) and to examine to what extent is their contents shaped by the EU. Building on study of diffusion in organizational settings, we examine whether exogenous forces in the form of the European Commission recommendations have impact on the contents of corporate governance codes or contents is driven by domestic stakeholders representing endogenous forces. Furthermore, we contribute to limited research analysing evolution of corporate governance codes and we examine how compliance with the European Commission (EC) has changed over time. Our findings suggest a significant strengthening of codes' quality across member states and convergence tendency to international best practices. However, we are not able to affirm that the European Commission recommendations were that certain exogenous force to shape national governance codes.

In privately held firms, owners are a social group of people who are aware of, interact with, and influence each other. There are dynamic relationships between them and potential clashes between self-and collective interests. At the same time, the management literature suggests that family firms behave differently than non-family firms and follow a different set of goals. This paper introduces a research framework, sample and initial findings of the Responsible Ownership Project, which aims to contribute to our understanding of how attitudes and behaviours of owners in privately held firms may influence the economic and non-economic outcomes of their firms. The goals of the paper are to explore the role of family businesses among Czech private firms and to test whether the family plays a significant role in responsible ownership behaviours in private firms. Our descriptive statistics suggest that family businesses play a non-negligible role in the Czech economy. Using Student's t-test for mean differences, we find a higher level of responsible ownership for family-owned vs non-family-owned firms. Finally, we present directions for future research and the expected contributions of the research project.

No abstract