Heir to the Throne: Perceived Child-successors’ Willingness and Parent-incumbents’ Corporate Philanthropy in Family Firms
基于社会情感财富理论，研究发现家族企业主感知到子女接班意愿越强，其代际传承预期和保留社会情感财富的动机越强，从而增加企业慈善捐赠；但面临政府征收威胁时，这种效应减弱。
Abstract The behavior of parent-incumbents depends not only on their own intention to hand over the family firm but also on their child-successors’ willingness to take over. Drawing on socioemotional wealth (SEW) theory, we develop a model of the impact of perceived child-successors’ willingness on parent-incumbents’ corporate philanthropy prior to succession. We argue that perceived child-successors’ willingness increases parent-incumbents’ transgenerational succession anticipation and the resulting desire to preserve SEW, which in turn motivates them to engage more in corporate philanthropy. However, parent-incumbents facing a greater threat of state expropriation engage less in philanthropy, as they anticipate a lower likelihood of successful transgenerational succession. Using data from a national survey of Chinese family firms, we find support for our hypotheses. Our findings highlight the significance of internal succession anticipation and its interplay with the external institutional environment in shaping family firm philanthropy.