Shadow of the Prince: Parent-incumbents’ Coercive Control over Child-successors in Family Organizations

Abstract

During family firm succession, parent-incumbents are often caught up in a paradox of both empowering and dominating their child-successors. To understand this recurring phenomenon, we draw from socioemotional wealth literature and a philosophical account of the power-transfer paradox in ancient patriarchal monarchies to hypothesize that parent-incumbents tend to exert generational coercive control when their child-successors are seen as very unwilling and incapable or very willing and capable of taking over patriarchal family organizations. We test our hypotheses in three studies. In Study 1, we coded data from succession cases in Chinese patriarchal monarchies (403 BC to 959 AD) and found support for the predicted non-linear effects of successor-princes’ willingness (63 cases) and capability (80 cases) on their father-kings’ coercive control (persecuting or murdering the princes). In Study 2, based on survey data from parent–child dyads of 157 family firms in Taiwan and mainland China, again, we found U-shaped effects of child-successors’ willingness and capability on parent-incumbents’ coercive control (restraining successors’ power). Moreover, parent-incumbents’ highly narcissistic personality attenuated these U-shaped relationships because they tend to devalue their child-successors’ willingness and capability. In Study 3, we conducted a survey of 103 parent–child dyads in family firms in mainland China and found a U-shaped relationship between capability and coercive control only when incumbents’ roles in the family and at work were highly intertwined.

Obligations and feeling envied: a study of workplace status and knowledge hiding

“…Second, examining both the dark and bright sides of status is in line with a recent research trend of using dialectical thinking to explore contrasting effects of the same phenomenon (e.g. Huang et al , 2019; Smith et al , 2018). Third, examining the dual effects of status may provide insights for practitioners that help them to better manage high-status employees' behavior by enabling positive and alleviating negative behaviors.…”

“…Scholars of dialectical inquiry have argued that we can gain a better understanding of phenomena by exploring their opposite sides (e.g. Huang et al , 2019; Smith et al , 2018). Our research demonstrates that felt obligation to share and feeling envied are distinct mechanisms through which workplace status impedes or promotes knowledge hiding, giving a more holistic picture of status.…”

Managing Traditions: A Critical Capability for Family Business Success

“…This is reflected in the emphasis placed on the role of “selecting” (Sharma et al, 2003) and training the “next gen” (Barbera et al, 2015) and choosing the formal or contractual context within which these negotiations may occur (Royer et al, 2008). Despite the best efforts to maintain a bidirectional exchange in the family business, the flow of information and power still seems to be assumed to move unidirectionaly, from the incumbent to the next generation (Garcia et al, 2019; X. Huang et al, 2019).…”

When the Former CEO Stays on Board: The Role of the Predecessor’s Board Retention for Product Innovation in Family Firms

“…Third, we could not empirically capture the willingness versus the ability (Chrisman et al, ; Huang, Chen, Xu, Lu, and Tam, ) of the involved parties to implement product innovation. For instance, future research might study under which conditions the predecessor’s board retention fosters or impedes the willingness of the successor to implement product innovation and which circumstances affect her/his ability to innovate.…”