Confucianism, successor choice, and firm performance in family firms: Evidence from China

This study examines the nexus between Confucianism, choice of leadership successor, and firm performance in family firms China. It provides original evidence that founders who are deeply influenced by Confucianism have a higher likelihood choosing member or guanxi-connected nonfamily as successor. Moreover, family/guanxi-connected successors positive effect on compared with their counterparts outside family/guanxi circle. One underlying reason is that, affected only can acquire founder's specialized assets via pre-succession internal managerial experience, which, turn, enables them to outperform other successors.