Owner-manager when death do us part – roles of a widow in sudden succession in family firms

Almlöf H., Sjögren H.

We sheds light on a hitherto understudied group in family business literature: widows. We explore the roles a widow may take following the unexpected death of her owner-manager spouse when she had no salient role in the business prior to the death.

We used a qualitative approach to research, to study inductively the roles considered and taken by three widows who unexpectedly succeeded as owners of Swedish privately held family firms. We conducted semi-structured interviews with widows and children in top management.

We construct a typology of four main roles a widow can take and analyse the underlying dimensions that they represent. We also analyse to which extent the choice of role widow can be explained by psychological ownership and double-loss theory. The typology can be used as a tool for family business owners and their advisors as the basis of an open and non-prejudiced discussion of the choices available to a widow.

Reference

• Almlöf, H. and Sjögren, H. (2021), "Owner-manager when death do us part – roles of a widow in sudden succession in family firms", Journal of Family Business Management.
• Link: https://doi.org/10.1108/JFBM-01-2021-0006