Female Leadership in Contemporary Chinese Family Firms
Abstract
Drawing on a case study of a three-generation family business, this paper explores the antecedents and consequences of female leadership in contemporary Chinese family business. Our findings suggest that institutional change in contemporary China affects the role of female family members in the family system, which eventually gave rise to female leadership in China's family businesses. We also propose that in comparison to male leadership, female leadership in Chinese family business is more concerned with balancing work-family conflict; more dependent upon the family's endowment of resources; and more likely to favor a participative (rather than authoritative) decision-making style.
Recommended Citation
Chen, S., Fang, C., MacKenzie, N. G., Carter, S., Chen, L., & Wu, B. (2018). Female Leadership in Contemporary Chinese Family Firms. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 35(1), pp. 181-211. Springer Verlag.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s10490-017-9515-2
Department(s)
Business and Information Technology
Keywords and Phrases
Case study; Family business in China; Female leadership; Institutional change
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
0217-4561; 1572-9958
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Citation
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2018 Springer Verlag, All rights reserved.
Publication Date
01 Mar 2018
Comments
We would like to thank coeditor Rico Lam, Michael Carney, and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive suggestions. We are also indebted to Jess Chua and Hao Wang for their valuable comments on earlier versions of this article. Shihui Chen (Corresponding Author) and Hanqing "Chevy" Fang are equal contributors. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 71272172, 71302059), the K. C. Wong Magna Fund in Ningbo University, the Provincial Natural Science Foundation of Fujian (No. 2016 J01335), and the Provincial Social Sciences Planning of Fujian (No. FJ2015C113).