Drawing on contingency and upper echelon theories, this study conceptualizes family firm CEO succession as a special window of opportunity for the new generation to reinvent and rejuvenate the firm and restore the environment-organization fit that had often deteriorated pre-succession. We argue that CEO-related human capital enables successors to identify and amend misfits, allowing them to re-chart an organization’s course to enhanced performance, especially when the misfit is marked by a turnaround situation. Based on a quantitative analysis of 804 German firms and 31 qualitative interviews, we find support for these coherences and contribute to contingency and upper echelon theories.
CITATION STYLE
Istipliler, B., Ahrens, J. P., Hauer, A., Steininger, D., & Woywode, M. (2024). Heroes of the Green Room–How able successors revitalize and reinvent family firms. Journal of Small Business Management, 62(3), 1604–1651. https://doi.org/10.1080/00472778.2022.2161554
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