When Things Don’t Turn Out as Expected: the Effects of Unexpected Succession in Family Firms on Entrepreneurial Orientation and Financial Performance

The aim of this paper is to investigate the effect of unexpected succession - forced succession due to unexpected factors, such as death, illness or divorce - on family firms’ entrepreneurial orientation and financial performance. Building on a global dataset of 1045 respondents from family firms, we introduce different types of unexpected succession and discuss the impact of different family events (i.e. death versus others) on the structure of the family, on family members’ motivations and behaviors and hence on family firms’ entrepreneurial attitudes and performance.