Abstract
Purpose – This study sheds light on a hitherto understudied group in family business literature: widows. Weexplore the roles a widow may take following the unexpected death of her owner-manager spouse when she hadno salient role in the business prior to the death.
Design/methodology/approach – We used a qualitative approach to research, to study inductively the rolesconsidered and taken by three widows who unexpectedly succeeded as owners of Swedish privately heldfamily firms. We conducted semi-structured interviews with widows and children in top management.
Findings – We construct a typology of four main roles a widow can take and analyse the underlyingdimensions that they represent. We also analyse to which extent the choice of role widow can be explained bypsychological ownership and double-loss theory. The typology can be used as a tool for family business ownersand their advisors as the basis of an open and non-prejudiced discussion of the choices available to a widow.
Originality/value – We have investigated the factors that influence a widow’s decision whether to take overthe business or not, as suggested in previous research by, for example, Martinez et al. (2009). We explore theroles a widow can consider and adopt. The study advances our understanding of how businesses can remain asfamily firms also in the event of the unexpected death of an owner-manager (De Massis et al., 2008). We hereby contribute to the literature on sudden successions and on women in family businesses.
Keywords - Family dynamics, Widow, Sudden succession, Sudden death, Psychological ownership, Doubleloss theory