FEMALE SUCCESSOR’S RESILIENCE IN FAMILY FIRMS: AN INTRODUCTORY ANALYSIS BASED ON AN ITALIAN CASE STUDY

Purpose: This research aims to investigate how women, specifically female successors, deal with endogenous (founder’s death) and exogenous (COVID-19) critical events thus making family businesses resilient. Amongst the endogenous events, the founder’s death represents one of the most critical since it forces succession processes. Design/methodology/approach. Because of the exploratory nature of this research, we conduct a single case study. Findings: The research points out which are the women’s peculiar competencies and capabilities that allow them to succeed in overcoming critical events and in turning the firm into a resilient one. Practical and Social implications: This paper might be helpful for prospective female successors to understand how to deal with critical events and how to turn their companies into resilient ones thanks to female’s abilities. From a social perspective it underlines the abilities of female successors and how family businesses can benefit from female successions. Originality of the study: The originality of this research comes from being, to the best of our knowledge, amongst the first times that a study analyses how female successors cope with endogenous and exogenous events to build a resilient family firm.