B1FT50
Wennberg, K., Wiklund, J., Hellerstedt, K., & Nordqvist, M. (2011)
Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 5(4), 352-372
All private family firms in Sweden that underwent ownership transfer over a 10-year window. Firms transferred to external owners outperform those transferred within the family, but survival is higher for intra-family transfers. The authors attribute this to long-term orientation of heirs versus "the entrepreneurial willingness of acquirers to bear uncertainty".
Sourcedoi:10.1002/sej.118176 citations (OpenAlex)
B2FT50
Wiklund, J., Nordqvist, M., Hellerstedt, K., & Bird, M. (2013)
Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 37(6), 1319-1340
Longitudinal data on 3,829 family firms and their ownership transitions (the Swedish register research programme; country not named in the abstract). Ownership dispersion, number of potential heirs, multigenerational involvement and a family CEO predict internal versus external transition. Focus is ownership transition, not management succession.
Sourcedoi:10.1111/etap.12068132 citations (OpenAlex)
B3near-FT50
Nordqvist, M., Wennberg, K., Bau', M., & Hellerstedt, K. (2013)
Small Business Economics, 40(4), 1087-1122
Review of 117 succession articles (1974 to 2010) reframing succession as entrepreneurial entry of new owners and exit of old owners. Calls for a focus on ownership transition and a multilevel perspective, and lists research gaps per cluster. (Abstract source: Springer page.)
Sourcedoi:10.1007/s11187-012-9466-4241 citations (OpenAlex)
B4FT50
Bennedsen, M., Nielsen, K. M., Pérez-González, F., & Wolfenzon, D. (2007)
Quarterly Journal of Economics, 122(2), 647-691
Danish register data; instruments family CEO succession with the gender of the departing CEO's firstborn. Family successions cause a drop of at least four percentage points in operating return on assets; underperformance is larger in fast-growing industries, skilled-labour industries and larger firms. Professional non-family CEOs "provide extremely valuable services".
Sourcedoi:10.1162/qjec.122.2.647998 citations (OpenAlex)
B5FT50
Pérez-González, F. (2006)
American Economic Review, 96(5), 1559-1588
CEO successions (the sample is US listed corporations; that detail is from the paper as generally described, not from the abstract): firms that appoint family-related CEOs underperform on operating profitability and market-to-book relative to firms promoting unrelated CEOs, especially where the heir did not attend a selective college. Large-firm evidence; cited as the nepotism benchmark.
Sourcedoi:10.1257/aer.96.5.15591142 citations (OpenAlex)
B6near-FT50
Cucculelli, M., & Micucci, G. (2008)
Journal of Corporate Finance, 14(1), 17-31
Italian founder-run firms: keeping management in the family after the founder hurts performance, mostly among previously good performers and in competitive sectors, after controlling for mean reversion. (Abstract source: EconPapers/RePEc.)
Sourcedoi:10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2007.11.001491 citations (OpenAlex)
B7FT50
Tsoutsoura, M. (2015)
Journal of Finance, 70(2), 649-688
Greece's 2002 cut in tax on intra-family business transfers. Succession taxes cause a decline of more than 40% in investment around family successions, slower sales growth and cash depletion, and "strongly affect the decision to sell or retain the firm within the family". (Abstract source: Wiley page.)
Sourcedoi:10.1111/jofi.12224144 citations (OpenAlex)
B8FT50
Ellul, A., Pagano, M., & Panunzi, F. (2010)
American Economic Review, 100(5), 2414-2450
10,004 firms from 38 countries, 1990 to 2006. Stricter forced-heirship law lowers investment in family firms that experience a succession, with no effect on non-family firms.
Sourcedoi:10.1257/aer.100.5.2414219 citations (OpenAlex)
B9near-FT50
Molly, V., Laveren, E., & Deloof, M. (2010)
Family Business Review, 23(2), 131-147
Panel of 152 SMEs, 1991 to 2006 (Belgian authors; country not named in the abstract). First-to-second-generation transfer lowers the debt rate and growth; later-generation transfers reverse the debt effect; profitability is unaffected.
Sourcedoi:10.1177/089448651002300203314 citations (OpenAlex)
B10near-FT50
Diwisch, D. S., Voithofer, P., & Weiss, C. R. (2009)
Small Business Economics, 32(1), 45-56
Roughly 4,000 Austrian family firms; matching estimates. Planned succession has no employment growth effect; completed succession has a positive employment growth effect that strengthens over time. (Abstract source: Springer page.)
Sourcedoi:10.1007/s11187-007-9072-z58 citations (OpenAlex)
B11other
Grundström, C., Öberg, C., & Öhrwall Rönnbäck, A. (2012)
Journal of Family Business Strategy, 3(3), 162-173
Ten case studies (Swedish authors). External owners focus more on growth and new ways of innovating; family successors diversify without abandoning legacy businesses; inherited values create inertia either way. (Abstract source: EconPapers/RePEc.)
Sourcedoi:10.1016/j.jfbs.2012.07.00170 citations (OpenAlex)
B12other
Meier, O., & Schier, G. (2014)
Journal of Family Business Strategy, 5(4), 372-383
Five failed external takeovers of SMEs (French authors), interviews with sellers and acquirers. Identifies five managerial errors linked to external acquirers' cognitive biases. One of very few studies of failed individual acquisitions. (Abstract source: EconPapers/RePEc.)
Sourcedoi:10.1016/j.jfbs.2014.05.00128 citations (OpenAlex)
B13near-FT50
Pahnke, A., Schlepphorst, S., & Schlömer-Laufen, N. (2024)
Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 21, e00457
Tracks whether owners realise their succession plans (IfM Bonn authors, Germany). Finds a wide mismatch: many owners abandon plans, miss the timeframe or close, and there is "a remarkable number of unintended business transfers which have received little attention in research to date".
Sourcedoi:10.1016/j.jbvi.2024.e0045725 citations (OpenAlex)
B14FT50
Chirico, F., Gómez-Mejia, L. R., Hellerstedt, K., Withers, M., & Nordqvist, M. (2020)
Socioemotional wealth, family control, and the choice of business exit. Journal of Management, 46(8), 1342-1379
Longitudinal matched sample of privately held firms. Family firms are less likely to exit and tolerate more distress; when exit is unavoidable they prefer merger (preserves some socioemotional wealth) while non-family firms prefer sale or dissolution.
Sourcedoi:10.1177/0149206318818723210 citations (OpenAlex)
B15FT50
Akhter, N., Sieger, P., & Chirico, F. (2016)
Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 10(4), 371-394
Six family business portfolios in Pakistan. Families may prefer to shut a satellite business rather than sell it, driven by identity concerns. Seller-side supply constraint on the acquisition market.
Sourcedoi:10.1002/sej.123794 citations (OpenAlex)
B16FT50
Amore, M. D., Bennedsen, M., Le Breton-Miller, I., & Miller, D. (2021)
Strategic Management Journal, 42(8), 1432-1458
489 Italian family firms losing a non-family CEO; difference-in-differences. Returning to a family CEO yields an 18% profitability advantage, weaker in volatile and innovation-reliant contexts.
Sourcedoi:10.1002/smj.327378 citations (OpenAlex)
B17FT50
Eddleston, K. A., Sieger, P., Chirico, F., & Baù, M. (2026)
A family and firm embeddedness perspective on succession after the CEO-owner's sudden death. Journal of Management Studies, 63(3), 1192-1228
Longitudinal sample of Swedish SMEs. Non-family successors produce less financial distress than family successors immediately after a sudden death, but the opposite holds in the long term; successor firm tenure (firm embeddedness) matters more than family status. Directly relevant to the outsider-CEO premise of search funds.
Sourcedoi:10.1111/joms.1318311 citations (OpenAlex)
B18near-FT50
Stamm, I., & Sandham, A. (2026)
Family Business Review, 39(1), 14-39
Document analysis and expert interviews on Germany since the 1990s. Shows the emergence of an "exit regime" in which ownership transfer is "coordinated through matchmaking, which increases the importance of business intermediaries".
Sourcedoi:10.1177/089448652513933052 citations (OpenAlex)
B19near-FT50
Vekemans, L., Michiels, A., Steijvers, T., & Molly, V. (2026)
Journal of Small Business Management, online first
Conjoint experiment: 1,520 loan assessments by 95 Belgian bank officers. Professionalisation practices, especially independent board members and external advisors, raise willingness to finance intergenerational ownership succession. States that "research on [succession's] financial dimension remains scarce".
Sourcedoi:10.1080/00472778.2026.26635610 citations (OpenAlex)
B20other
Schlömer-Laufen, N., & Rauch, A. (2022)
Journal of Family Business Management, 12(1), 24-40
Meta-analysis of 33 samples from 27 studies covering 75,522 German firms facing or completing transfer: 62% are (planned to be) transferred within the family; industry and study design drive the estimate. Notes the absence of official statistics on external transfers.
Sourcedoi:10.1108/jfbm-04-2020-002528 citations (OpenAlex)
B21other
Duetsch, S., & Oestreich, M. (2025)
Journal of Small Business & Entrepreneurship, 37(6), 891-912
Review finding (1) a "pecking order" of successors by closeness to the incumbent, (2) acquirers differ from founders in demographics, experience and skills, (3) a typology of succession modes. Concludes ETA "is an emerging and interdisciplinary research topic that deserves deeper integrative exploration".
Sourcedoi:10.1080/08276331.2025.24786745 citations (OpenAlex)
B22near-FT50
Bruce, D., & Picard, D. (2006)
Journal of Small Business Management, 44(2), 306-309
2004 Canadian Federation of Independent Business survey, 4,311 members: 41% of owners intend to exit within five years and only one third have a plan to sell, transfer or wind down. (Abstract source: SSRN record in OpenAlex.)
Sourcedoi:10.1111/j.1540-627x.2006.00171.x76 citations (OpenAlex)
B23near-FT50
Leroy, H., Manigart, S., Meuleman, M., & Collewaert, V. (2015)
Journal of Small Business Management, 53(2), 400-415
Survey of 175 exiting entrepreneurs (Belgian authors). Sale attitudes predict sale intentions and actual sale versus liquidation; attitudes relate to experience, employee count and multigenerational family status.
Sourcedoi:10.1111/jsbm.1207736 citations (OpenAlex)
B24other
van Teeffelen, L., & Uhlaner, L. M. (2013)
Entrepreneurship Research Journal, 3(1)
158 owners of mostly micro firms (Dutch authors). Prior turnover, the firm's independence from its owner, firm size and the owner's own acquisition experience predict sale rather than liquidation.
Sourcedoi:10.1515/erj-2012-000846 citations (OpenAlex)
B25FT50
Ahrens, J.-P., Calabrò, A., Huybrechts, J., & Woywode, M. (2019)
Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 43(3), 437-474
Separates the "family member" attribute of a successor CEO from other CEO attributes such as human capital. After those controls, family membership is positively related to post-succession performance, which challenges the reading of B4 to B6.
Sourcedoi:10.1177/104225871881629085 citations (OpenAlex)
B26FT50
Zellweger, T. M., Kellermanns, F. W., Chrisman, J. J., & Chua, J. H. (2012)
Organization Science, 23(3), 851-868
Prospect theory account of the price at which family owners would sell to non-family buyers; data from two countries. Intention for transgenerational control consistently raises the acceptable selling price; current control does not.
Sourcedoi:10.1287/orsc.1110.0665832 citations (OpenAlex)