Approaches to Succession in East Asian Business Organizations

By concentrating on the approaches to succession in Japanese and overseas Chinese family businesses, this article attempts to come to terms with the question of why Japanese firms enjoy corporate longevity while overseas Chinese firms do not. Succession in the overseas Chinese family (coparcenary) is different from succession in Japanese families (primogeniture) at every relevant point, and these differences have important consequences for overseas Chinese family business. The article also discusses economic, historical, and social functions of the two inheritance systems.