Internal Disruptions İn Family Business Succession: Death, Divorce, And Disability

Family-owned businesses continue to form the backbone of most of the national economies. However, because of the tenuous nature of the ownership structure of most small and family businesses only one in three family businesses succeeds in making it from the first to the second generation. In addition to issues and problems they encounter when they try to undertake expected and natural transitions (e.g. retirement, etc.), these smaller businesses are particularly vulnerable to the impact of unexpected, life-altering events that affect the business owner and often the business itself. Because of the lack of availability of research studies in this area, we used real life cases and events published in numerous business publications and from our personal experiences to categorize and summarize these incidents to develop a preliminary perspective of the various impacts such changes can have on these businesses.

___

  • “War of the Zackses: Divorce Splits Up Mom and Pop Store ---In a Double Exposure, Exes Run Rival Camera Shops; Patrons Are feeling Uneasy, Hilary Stout.” Wall Street Journal (Eastern Edition), November 12, 1997. pg. A1.
  • "Estate planning: Surviving an owner's death." Inc, 1 Apr. 1993, Vol.15, Issue ; Pg. 45.
  • Barach, Jeffrey, Joseph Gantisky, James Carson, and Benjamin Doochin, (1988). “Entry of the next generation: Strategic challenge for family business.”
  • Journal of Small Business Management Vol. 26, No. 2, pg. 54. Birley, Sue, Dennis Ng, and Andrew Godfrey, (1999). “The Family and the Business.” Long Range Planning, Vol. 32, No. 6, pg. 598-609.
  • Dennis, W. Jr., (2002). Families in Business: NFIB National Small Business Poll, Vol. 2 Issue 6, 2002
  • Fritz, Roger (1997). Wars of Succession: The Blessings, Curses and Lessons
  • That Family Owned Firms Offer Anyone in Business. Santa Monica, Calif.: Merritt Publishing, p. 250. Galbraith, Craig S. (2003). “Divorce and the Financial Performance of Small
  • Family Businesses: An Exploratory Study.” Journal of Small Business Management, 2003 41(3), pp. 296-30
  • Hill, Kirk S. (1992). “Business Can Get Sick Too ” Life and Health Insurance
  • Sales, July 1992. Vol. 135, Issue7: Pg. 4-5.
  • Janjuha-Jivraj, Shaheena and Adrian Woods, (2002). “Successional issues within Asian family firms: Learning from the Kenyan experience.” International
  • Small Business Journal, Vol. 20, No. 1 p. 77. Kickham, V.F. (2004). “Keeping the Family Business Alive,” Industrial Distribution, 11, pg. 48-52.
  • Lansberg, Ivan (1999). Succeeding Generations: Realizing the Dream of
  • Families in Business. Boston: Harvard Business School Press Lee, K.S., G.H. Lim, and W.S. Lim (2003). “Family Business Succession:
  • Appropriation Risk and Choice of Successor,” Academy of Management Review 28(4), pg. 657-666. Livingston, Abby (1997). “Make your Family Business Divorce Proof.” Nation’s
  • Business, January 1997. Vol. 85, Issue 1; pg. 64-65
  • Martensen, Jon (1995). “Facing Death gives birth to business.” Small Business
  • News, May 1995. Vol.2, Issue 1; Sec 1. pg. 10.
  • Miller, Danny, Lloyd Steier, and Isabelle Le Breton-Miller, (2003). “Lost in time:
  • Intergenerational succession, change, and failure in family business.” Journal of Business Venturing, Vol. 18, No. 4, pg. 513. Montgomery, B.J., and A.M. Sinclair (2000). “All in the Family,” Business &
  • Economic Review, Jan-Mar., pg. 3-7. Poza, E. J. (2004). Family Business, Mason, OH: South-Western
  • Sporss, Kelly K. (2007). “Keep Business Alive With Succession Plans.” Wall
  • Street Journal, (Eastern Edition), August 5, 2007. pg. A1.
  • Stavrou, Eleni T. (1999). “Succession in family businesses: exploring the effects of demographic factors on offspring intentions to join and take over the business.” Journal of Small Business Management, V. 37 no. 3 (July 1999) pg. 61
  • Weikart, Richard J. (2001). "Protecting small-business owners." Advisor Today, January 1, 2001: 14.