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International audienceThis research explores family succession in which the successors were unexpected. We present six cases studies of children who initially pursued careers outside the family firm but who later decided to return and successfully take over the small family business. Our outcomes explain why they decided to return, the conditions that they set for succeeding their fathers and the way they approached the management of the family firm. We show that the success they experienced in their professional careers far from the family business positioned them as legitimate leaders. They made a deliberate personal choice to succeed, negotiating the conditions, and this put them on the same level as their predecessors. These successors act as entrepreneurs, they are proactive, take risks, detect new business opportunities and do not hesitate to innovate. The changes that they implement are possible thanks to the support of their predecessors which avoids the destabilisation of the organisation

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This study proposes an original structural model that analyzes the relationship between sustainable firm performance, and a board of directors’ external and internal social capital. Data collected in 232 non-listed and family-run small and medium-sized enterprises in Spain suggest that the effects of boards’ internal and external social capital on sustainable firm performance were partially transmitted through board effectiveness. However, external social capital influences board effectiveness and sustainable firm performance more than internal social capital. Moreover, interlocks only reinforce the relationship between a board’s external social capital and its effectiveness. Our research offers the following main contributions: (1) A proposed structural theoretical model, (2) a focus on both internal and external social capital, unlike previous literature that emphasized only one perspective, and (3) empirical evidence that supports literature on the interlocking interaction between a boards’ internal and external social capital.