Reports
Discussion Papers
No.012 Family Business in Mexico: Responses to Human Resource Limitations and Management Succession
by HOSHINO Taeko
November 2004
ABSTRACT
Indigenous
firms
in
Mexico,
as
in
most
developing
countries,
take
the
shape
of
family
businesses.
Regardless
of
size,
the
most
predominant
ones
are
those
owned
and
managed
by
one
or
more
families
or
descendent
families
of
the
founders.
From
the
point
of
view
of
economics
and
business
administration,
family
business
is
considered
to
have
variety
of
limitations
when
it
seeks
to
grow.
One
of
the
serious
limitations
is
concerning
human
resource,
which
is
revealed
at
the
time
of
management
succession.
Big
family
businesses
in
Mexico
deal
with
human
resource
limitations
adopting
measures
such
as
the
education
and
training
of
the
successors,
the
establishment
of
management
structure
that
makes
control
by
the
owner
family
possible
and
divisions
of
roles
among
the
owner
family
members,
and
between
the
owner
family
members
and
the
salaried
managers.
Institutionalization
is
a
strategy
that
considerable
number
of
family
businesses
have
adopted
in
order
to
undergo
the
succession
process
without
committing
serious
errors.
Institutionalization
is
observed
in
such
aspects
as
the
establishment
of
the
requisite
condition
to
be
met
by
the
candidate
of
future
successor
and
the
screening
by
an
institution
which
is
independent
of
the
owner
family.
At
present
these
measures
allow
for
the
continuation
of
family
businesses
in
an
extremely
competitive
environment.
Keywords:
family
business,
ownership,
management,
succession,
Mexico
JEL
classification:
K22,
L22,
M12,
M13
Please note that discussion papers are works in various stages of progress and most have not been edited and proofread and may contain errors of fact or judgment. Revised versions of these papers may subsequently appear in more formal publication series. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s). The IDE does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included and accepts no responsibility for any consequences arising from its use.