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A suitable boy? Gendered roles and hierarchies in family business succession
Author(s) -
Byrne Janice,
Fattoum Salma,
Thébaud Sarah
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
european management review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.784
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 1740-4762
pISSN - 1740-4754
DOI - 10.1111/emre.12298
Subject(s) - successor cardinal , ecological succession , hierarchy , social constructionism , construct (python library) , mainstream , sociology , strict constructionism , social psychology , gender studies , psychology , political science , social science , mathematical analysis , ecology , mathematics , computer science , law , biology , programming language
Given the importance of family business to economies and societies, the persistence of gender inequality in succession requires further exploration. While gender theorizing has penetrated mainstream management theorizing, its application in family business literature remains underdeveloped: extant research conceptualizes gender as an objective property of individuals, synonymous with biological sex. In this paper, we adopt a social constructionist approach and study four cases of family business succession, revealing significant insights into how gender structures successor selection. We show how gender dynamics are more complicated than a binary view focused on gender category would imply. Specifically, we identify how family members, through discourses and interactions, socially construct the successor role, and how this gendered construction of the role frames a hierarchy of potential successors. This hierarchy is based on the combination of gender category and the extent to which an individual's traits and characteristics are perceived to align with that role.