Leadership in the Family Business in Relation to the Desirable Attributes for the Successor: Evidence from Mexico

Abstract

Family businesses must generate strategies to achieve continuity in order to survive. In this sense, the designation and legitimation of leadership, as well as the desirable attributes for the successor, emerge as key factors. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the leadership types and desirable attributes chosen for the succession process. To account for the above, a questionnaire was applied to a sample of 144 executives and employees from tourist organizations of service, commerce and industry in the northwestern region of Mexico.  Questionnaires were based on a Likert scale type (1 to 5), including sections about leadership (comprised by five dimensions) and the desirable attributes of the successor (comprised by two dimensions). Our results emphasize that the leadership in the first four generations (before, during and after the succession process), present a constant of importance in the presence of the types: expert, referential and laissez faire/mission and the administrative attributes. Furthemore, participatory leadership decreases and autocratic increases while the family attributes do so as they go from one successor stage to another. To enrich our study and map family businesses, we recommend the inclusion of different aspects related to the Latin American context and the generation of inferences with new elements such as motivational profiles, work stressors and interactions of Latino families, among others.