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Research summary: Building on a unique data set with information on the nuclear structure of entrepreneurial families, we integrate leadership succession into a socioe-motional wealth (SEW) logic to test the antecedents and consequences of primogeniture vis-à-vis second- or subsequent-bom selection in family firm succession. Our findings suggest that appointing a family firstborn sibling is more likely when there is a high degree of SEW endowment and the family firm has pre-succession performance below aspiration levels. Next, we find that appointing a second- or subsequent-born sibling has a positive and significant effect on post-succession firm profitability, particularly when the firm is in its second generation or later. Managerial summary: What drives succession choices in family firms? What are the performance implications of each succession choice? These are questions of vital relevance for every business owner. Focusing on the pool of potential family heirs at the time of succession, our study adds to the debate on the drivers of succession choices by suggesting that having a family intensive governance structure fosters primogeniture as the main succession logic, even when the family firm is experiencing lower profitability. Our study informs business owners on the implications of different succession policies, suggesting that family firms that have the courage to disregard primogeniture and choose more wisely the family successor are also the ones experiencing higher post-succession performance.

We use an innovative survey tool to collect management practice data from 732 medium-sized firms in the United States, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. These measures of managerial practice are strongly associated with firm-level productivity, profitability, Tobin's Q, and survival rates. Management practices also display significant cross-country differences, with U.S. firms on average better managed than European firms, and significant within-country differences, with a long tail of extremely badly managed firms. We find that poor management practices are more prevalent when product market competition is weak and/or when family-owned firms pass management control down to the eldest sons (primogeniture).

Building a strong autocratic state requires stability in ruler-elite relations. From this perspective the absence of a successor is problematic, as the elite have few incentives to remain loyal if the autocrat cannot reward them for their loyalty after his death. However, an appointed successor has both the capacity and the motive to challenge the autocrat. We argue that a succession based on primogeniture solves the dilemma, by providing the regime with a successor who can afford to wait to inherit the throne peacefully. We test our hypothesis on a dataset covering 961 monarchs ruling 42 European states between 1000 and 1800, and show that fewer monarchs were deposed in states practicing primogeniture than in states practicing alternative succession orders. A similar pattern persists in the world's remaining absolute monarchies. Primogeniture also contributed to building strong states: In 1801 all European monarchies had adopted primogeniture or succumbed to foreign enemies.

The study evaluated gender equality factors influencing succession in family business. Specifically, the study examined gender factors influence on family business succession planning in Nigeria. Primary data, obtained through personal interview on sampled CEOs and questionnaire administered on CEOs, management and senior officers of identified family business firms in southwestern Nigeria, were analysed with the aids of descriptive statistical tools. Findings revealed that the traditional principles of primogeniture, gender stereotypes and women invincibility are speedily giving ways to women professionality, entrepreneurial sagacity and resourcefulness that are improving their capacity to excel in previously male-dominated business landscape. The study concludes that gender equality is capable of facilitating economic development, and that given equal chances women are confidently throwing up better performances in the field of business and hence should be encouraged through proper education, less discrimination and equal opportunities with their male counterpart.

Caregiving for aging parents can be a stressful process for middle-aged adults. Accordingly, many adult children experience anticipatory anxiety regarding care for their parents (i.e., filial anxiety), which can lead to health problems. Previous studies indicated that parental attachment is a crucial determinant of filial anxiety. However, in primogeniture cultures, in which first-born children inherit all the family property, the birth order of adult children directly influences caregiving for parents. Therefore, the present study aimed to examine the moderating effect of birth order between insecure attachment and filial anxiety. In total, 515 middle-aged Japanese adults (21.7% men) with a mean age of 32.27 ( SD  = 5.34) years completed an online questionnaire. Parental attachment was assessed with the Experiences in Close Relationship-Relationship Structure Scale, while filial anxiety was assessed with a single item. We conducted multiple regression analyses separately for filial anxiety regarding care for mothers and fathers. The negative effect of attachment avoidance on anxiety regarding care for mothers was stronger in adult children who were born first, and that of attachment anxiety was stronger in adult children who were born later. High attachment avoidance increased anxiety regarding care for fathers, regardless of birth order. Birth order played a major role in determining filial anxiety, especially for mothers. These results are thought to reflect the Japanese cultural conventions of caregiving. This study has valuable implications for understanding filial anxiety from a culture-specific perspective.

Behn and Centlivre used their comedies about the rivalry between an elder and a younger brother concerning an inheritance to make a political statement. Primogeniture was customary in early-modern England, and if an estate was entailed (rather than held in fee simple), it was difficult, though not impossible, to will it away to another person. The reasons meriting disinheritance were widely discussed, but in the two plays, the Tory fathers disinherit their Whig elder sons for political reasons. As The Younger Brother was staged posthumously and altered by Charles Gildon, it is arguable what Behn’s manuscript looked like, but there are indications that the elder brother was meant to be a downright republican and that Behn saw to it that the estate would go to the Tory younger brother, whose political stance she shared. In The Artifice, the father disinherits his upright elder son because he punished a Jacobite clergyman (whom the Whigs would have considered traitorous), but Centlivre—a zealous Whig herself—engineered an ending that reinstates the elder brother but also provides the younger with a comfortable income. Both dramatists also dealt with the inheritance prospects of women and the power of disposal they have over their portions.

This paper looks at the aspects of pre-1994 apartheid laws that deliberately and brazenly discriminated against women and a girl child from inheriting, taking leadership responsibility in society, and the inhering property of their deceased fathers just because of their gender. The paper accentuates that post-1994 progressive transformative constitutional and legislative prescripts and interventions have restored women's dignity by placing them on equal footing with their male counterparts, hence being gender neutral. Women and girls now have the right to inherit properties, and the jurisprudence of the South African courts has affirmed equal recognition for both male and female primogeniture. Methodologically, this paper used mainly a literature review approach. To this end, the Google search engine and the internet were utilised, whereby keywords on the issues at hand were inserted to search for relevant literature in the subject area, relevant materials generated were retrieved, analysed, and interpreted, and relevant aspects were used to address the problems of discriminatory tendencies against women in inheritance spaces. The paper found that post-1994 jurists in South Africa have been very meticulous in ensuring that the prescripts in laws are being deployed and used to emancipate women and girl child from all discriminatory practices. Similarly, most apartheid laws that prevented women from inheritance, successions, and leadership are being declared invalid and unconstitutional. By so doing, preventing violations of women’s rights and protect the right of women to dignity as enshrined in the Constitution.

Male primogeniture is deeply rooted in South African tradition, it was central to Customary Law of Intestate Succession where the first-born son or the closest male related to the deceased will succeed in the role and position of the decedent This practice perpetuated gender inequality by discriminating against female heirs and younger sons, limiting their rights to inheritance and succession to property and leadership roles. Resistance movements and advocacy efforts emerged over time to challenge male primogeniture, aiming to promote gender equality and the rights of all family members, in particular women. The end of apartheid in 1994 marked a significant turning point, as South Africa adopted a new, more inclusive constitution that sought to address discriminatory practices like male primogeniture. Undoubtedly, post-1994 constitutional democratic South African legislative and judicial arms of government seemed to have made frantic efforts to distort, eliminate and abolish the principle of male primogeniture which was practiced in terms of customary law of succession by the indigenous African people in South Africa. Even though there is a need for the judiciary to develop customary law in line with the Constitutional values especially in the areas of the equal right to equality and dignity for all including women, the process of legislating and adjudicating customary law was the reliance on common law and western ideas. These ideas are being used to measure and ascertain the validity and recognition of customary law, and as such, the courts usually reach decisions and conclusions based on the values of common law instead of harmonizing customary law to meet the lived experiences without necessarily incorporating western ideas in Customary Law. Regarding succession, this is wider in scope than the concept of inheritance, which referred to the transfer of properties. Male primogeniture is indigenous customary practice, but it is currently being negatively regulated through statutory legislation and judicial pronouncements. Hence, the need for the examination of the practical problems associated with the abolishment of the principle of male primogeniture due to the use of western values to interpret customary law of succession. The paper emphasizes that even though legislation is necessary for regulating customary law, it should be done in line with the constitutional values with the aim for customary law to be more accurate and administered properly not to distort customary law.

This paper examines how the degree of gender-egalitarianism embedded in inheritance rules impacts state capacity at its early stages during medieval times. We present a theoretical model in which building state capacity enables nobles to raise taxes and overcome rivals. The model addresses the use of inheritance to consolidate landholding dynasties, also accommodating interstate marriages between landed heirs. On the one hand, dynastic continuity—of utmost importance to medieval lords—directly encourages state-building. Male-biased inheritance rules historically maximize the likelihood of dynastic continuity. We weigh this effect against the indirect impact of the more frequent land-merging marriages under gender-egalitarian rules. Contrary to the literature, our results suggest that gender-egalitarian norms—offering a low probability of dynastic continuity—promote state capacity in the short run more than gender-biased norms. In the long run, results are reversed, providing a rationale for the pervasive European tradition of preference for men as heirs.