From Grief to Action: Family Business Takeover and Widows’ Succession Strategies

Abstract

Research in management sciences tackling the role of widows in family business succession remains scant, widows being quasi-exclusively examined as (their husband’s) successors. Combining business history and management sciences literature, we explore their action as they become predecessors in the succession. Building on private and business archives, we draw the portraits of two widowed women at the head of two industrial family businesses in the 19th century. This allows us to document the successoral strategies designed, and to enlarge our understanding of widows’ roles in family business succession.