Interplays between mother and entrepreneurial identities in the succession process: when mom is the founder and passes 'the baton'

This study aims to understand how women entrepreneurs involved in a succession process as incumbent manage their double identities of entrepreneur and mother, and how these two identities interplay. The paper also aims to reflect on the role of the father in a succession process where the founder is a mother. Two longitudinal case studies - from Italy and Spain - are analysed. In both cases, the main character is a woman who founded a business and recently passed the leadership to her children. Results show that these women were able to effectively manage their double identities with positive effects for the succession process. Moreover, while in a traditional succession process, with a father as founder, the mother acts as mediator between incumbent and successor, in our cases the need for a third actor to act as a mediator disappeared and the fathers had no role because a dyadic mother-children relationship emerged.