Getting Out of the Family Business and Taking Flight: The Metamorphosis of a Successor Daughter Who Becomes an Entrepreneur

Family firms are a vital element of our economy and society and their continuity through intrafamily succession has been the focus of academic debate for several decades, recently with particular emphasis on the role of daughters. Research has deeply investigated how entrepreneurial families can nurture entrepreneurial attitudes across generations and what factors may hinder or favor daughters in being chosen as successors. However, little is known about daughters who voluntarily decide to leave the family business, despite the possibility of serving as the successor, to engage their entrepreneurial legacy in creating new enterprises. This paper investigates the experiences of a daughter who decided to give up her role of family business successor to start her own, new venture. It aims to identify the reasons behind this daughter’s decision and to understand how her experience in the family business has contributed to the formation of her entrepreneurial identity. Placed in the research field of family entrepreneurship and drawing on a case study, this paper shows that for some daughters, joining their family firms may be an unattractive option, even if they have been designated as successors. Personal motivations, ambitions, and family needs may prompt some daughters to exploit their entrepreneurial legacy by pursuing an independent entrepreneurial career. In the analyzed case, this process occurred in the form of a metamorphosis: while the daughter entered the family business with the intention to take on leadership within a few years, her experience as a manager grew and enriched her skills, and accentuated her self-efficacy, creativity, and risk-taking, to the point of inspiring the emergence of an entrepreneurial intention and prompting her to create a new enterprise. Findings also show that the family can play a decisive role in this process of entrepreneurial identity formation as a source of learning, encouragement, and inspiration.