Successors in Dutch family businesses: gender differences

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate gender differences among (potential) successors of Dutch family firms with respect to education, self-perceived capabilities and ownership ambition. Design/methodology/approach – The empirical analysis – which includes correlations, t-test and lo...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of family business management 2014-04, Vol.4 (1), p.79-91
Main Authors: Remery, Chantal, Matser, Ilse, Hans Flören, Roberto
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Daughters
Education
Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurship
Families & family life
Family firms
Family owned businesses
Females
Gender differences
Labor market
Multivariate analysis
Part time employment
Participation
Regression analysis
Segregation
Strategy
Studies
Women
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate gender differences among (potential) successors of Dutch family firms with respect to education, self-perceived capabilities and ownership ambition. Design/methodology/approach – The empirical analysis – which includes correlations, t-test and logistic regression analysis – is inspired by several theoretical perspectives used in previous studies and based on a sample of 232 (potential) successors who filled in a questionnaire. Findings – The results show that there is a clear gender difference regarding ownership; men strive more often for full ownership, whereas women opt for shared ownership, even when controlling for relevant variables such as the presence of children. Research limitations/implications – Future research should address the precise reasons why female successors prefer shared ownership. Particularly, it would be interesting to include the impact of the institutional environment, for example the specific Dutch working culture, where the majority of women works part-time. Practical implications – Shared ownership might be more complicated in terms of governance and management than full ownership. Social implications – Opportunities for shared ownership might stimulate more women to take over the family firm, and therefore contribute to more diversity among family business owners. Originality/value – This paper contributes to the still limited knowledge on gender differences among successors of family firms.
ISSN:2043-6238
2043-6246
DOI:10.1108/JFBM-09-2013-0021