Succession and inheritance in Scottish business families, c.1875–1935

Abstract

This paper explores the dynamics of succession and inheritance in Scottish business families during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Making use of the unusual quality of Scottish testamentary records, it explores the management of succession within family firms, focusing on the relationship between the choices made by business owners, their family circumstances, and the future of their firms. Taking the 'family-centred' approach to business development used by historians such as Morris, Owens and Barker for the period of the industrial revolution in England as a starting point, it argues that a broader understanding of inheritance can explain business succession, and that the control and ownership of family firms was changed by the uses made of limited liability.

Thirty Years of Research on Succession in the Field of Family Business: A Bibliometric Analysis

“…First, we have included the different terms that are generic to family business such as "family firm" and "family business", according to the keywords used by López-Fernández, Serrano-Bedia and Pérez-Pérez (2016), and those that refer to "family control" and "family ownership" according to Shanker and Astrachan (1996). Second, we have chosen the most generic terms that refer to generational change as "Succession" (Nordqvist et al, 2013;Mackie, 2019), "transmission" (Gundolf, Meier & Missonier, 2013;Aragón-Amonarriz, Arredondo & Iturrioz-Landart, 2019), and "transition" (Moores & Mula, 2000;Stavrou & Swiercz, 1998).…”

Legacy in Family Business: A Systematic Literature Review and Future Research Agenda

“…In so doing, the next generation transformed the content of the founder legacy while at the same time preserving organizational identity over time. Certain founders set up family governance mechanisms such as family offices (Carney et al, 2014), family protocols (Barros et al, 2016), and family trusts or foundations (Mackie, 2022) Primary socialization is of major importance for the circulation of family legacy and entrepreneurial legacy as well as for family firm legacy, although this legacy is rarely shared through family mechanisms (e.g., Joosse & Grubbström, 2017). Drawing on imprinting theory, the texts in our corpus acknowledge the importance of firsthand imprinting, which is a process of rapid learning and social attachment during childhood intervening in the circulation of family legacy (n = 7) and entrepreneurial legacy (n = 5; e.g., Marques et al, 2022;Powers & Zhao, 2019).…”

“…In so doing, the next generation transformed the content of the founder legacy while at the same time preserving organizational identity over time. Certain founders set up family governance mechanisms such as family offices (Carney et al, 2014), family protocols (Barros et al, 2016), and family trusts or foundations (Mackie, 2022) to build their legacy. In other families, as evidenced by Llanos-Contreras et al (2019, p. 88), founders enact role modeling to secure “a platform from which successors can act strategically.” Role modeling ( n = 8) facilitates vicarious learning by conveying living examples of what it means to be an entrepreneur and a family business owner, which enhances the new generation’s understanding of founder values and identity (see Igwe, Newbery, et al, 2020).…”