“Over My Dead Body”: Wives’ Influence in Family Business Succession

By: Barbara Cosson and Michael Gilding (December 2021 issue)

This article originated from a research project in partnership with a major Australian accounting firm specializing in family businesses. During the project, a partner in the accounting firm recalled a grueling succession planning process with a family business founder and his potential successors. No one consulted the founder’s wife until a deal was imminent, where upon she blew the deal up and proclaimed, “It will not happen over my dead body,” highlighting both the dynamics of the wives’ invisibility in the family business (no one consulted her) and their potential influence (she blew the deal apart). This example is strikingly similar to the 1971 “vixen” perspective.

The authors took the mostly overlooked influence of wives to heart and embarked on a research project consisting of 34 in-depth interviews to focus on the influence of wives and came to three conclusions:

1. Wives have critical influence through socialization across the lifespan of the business, specifically through normative, interactive, and experiential socialization.
2. Wives profoundly influence their children’s vocational choices through advice, encouragement, and role modeling, thus impacting family business continuity.
3. Wives have an amplified influence on family business succession because of the changing expectations and interpersonal dynamics of marriage and family life.

Wives can influence succession through giving advice and encouragement as well as role modeling at home and at work. This article develops four categories of ideal types: Pioneers, Doubters, Traditionalists, and Disruptors. Research articles like this one can help advisors shine a light on the invisible power of wives in the family businesses, which could make that role more visible and constructive.

Celebrity Couples as Business Families: A Social Network Perspective

By: Yasaman Gorji, Michael Carney, Rajshree Prakash (December 2021 issue)

This article focuses on the power of the couple and underscores that for enterprising families, marriage is a strong social tie that represents the unification of two previously independent social networks with potentially reciprocal benefits. Although the emphasis of this article is on celebrity couples, the theories presented also apply to couples in family enterprises. It serves to remind advisors of the adage “One plus one equals three,” and invites the advisor to think about the potential attached to that concept.

The Role of Wives in Family Businesses: The Paid and Unpaid Work of Women

By: Barbara R. Rowe and Gong-Soog Hong (March 2000 issue)

The authors emphasize the many paid and unpaid contributions women make to family enterprises and underscore that the contribution of wives to a family business can take several forms, including managing the household, working in the business, being employed by others, and simultaneously holding two jobs—one in the family business and one in outside employment. The magnitude of wives’ contributions to family enterprises is far beyond what they may first appear, and this article reminds advisors of that factor in a thoughtful, well documented manner.

Sex and Gender in Family Business Succession Research: A Review and Forward Agenda from a Social Construction Perspective

By: Teresa Nelson and Christina Constantinidis (September 2017 issue)

This article highlights hidden gender biases that advisors implicitly have when dealing with clients and provokes thought as to what the roles (visible and invisible) of men and women are in the family enterprise and how being mindful of that bias promotes better planning.