Subtopic Deep Dive

Succession Planning
Research Guide

What is Succession Planning?

Succession planning identifies and develops internal talent to fill key leadership positions ensuring organizational continuity.

Researchers examine strategies for building leadership pipelines, assessing succession risks, and implementing plans in family firms and multinationals. Key works include Collings and Mellahi (2009) with 1720 citations reviewing strategic talent management, and Rothwell (1994) with 588 citations on ensuring leadership continuity. Over 10 highly cited papers from 1979-2009 form the core literature.

Curated Papers

Key Challenges

Why It Matters

Succession planning sustains leadership stability during executive turnover, reducing disruptions in firms (Rothwell, 1994). In family businesses, mutual role adjustments between entrepreneurs and next-generation members prevent failure (Handler, 1990). Shen and Cannella (2002) show successor type and post-succession turnover impact firm performance, while Collings and Mellahi (2009) link it to broader talent strategies enhancing competitiveness.

Key Research Challenges

Family firm role transitions

Entrepreneurs and successors negotiate mutual role adjustments amid conflicting expectations (Handler, 1990). This delays planning in family contexts (Sharma et al., 2003). Empirical results tie successor propensity to planned behavior outcomes (Sharma et al., 2003).

CEO succession performance effects

Successor type, executive turnover, and departing CEO tenure alter firm performance (Shen and Cannella, 2002). Internal vs. external hires yield varying results. Studies revisit these dynamics with 528 citations (Shen and Cannella, 2002).

Talent pipeline development

Firms face disruptions without addressing multilevel talent needs (Rothwell, 1994). Strategic reviews highlight gaps in agenda (Collings and Mellahi, 2009). Family firms neglect HRM practices explaining success variance (Astrachan and Kolenko, 1994).

Essential Papers

Strategic talent management: A review and research agenda

David G. Collings, Kamel Mellahi · 2009 · Human Resource Management Review · 1.7K citations

Effective Succession Planning: Ensuring Leadership Continuity and Building Talent from Within

William J. Rothwell · 1994 · 588 citations

Organizations that don't take steps to address future talent needs at all levels will face certain disruptions, and even disasters, when key employees leave. The most comprehensive book on the subj...

Succession in Family Firms: A Mutual Role Adjustment between Entrepreneur and Next-generation Family Members

Wendy C. Handler · 1990 · Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice · 556 citations

Passing the Baton: Managing the Process of CEO Succession

Richard F. Vancil · 1987 · Medical Entomology and Zoology · 552 citations

REVISITING THE PERFORMANCE CONSEQUENCES OF CEO SUCCESSION: THE IMPACTS OF SUCCESSOR TYPE, POSTSUCCESSION SENIOR EXECUTIVE TURNOVER, AND DEPARTING CEO TENURE.

Wei Shen, Albert A. Cannella · 2002 · Academy of Management Journal · 528 citations

Succession Planning as Planned Behavior: Some Empirical Results

Pramodita Sharma, James J. Chrisman, Jess H. Chua · 2003 · Family Business Review · 491 citations

This paper uses the theory of planned behavior to hypothesize the influence of the incumbent's desire to keep the business in the family, the family's commitment to the business, and the propensity...

International experience in the executive suite: the path to prosperity?

Catherine M. Daily, S. Trevis Certo, Dan R. Dalton · 2000 · Strategic Management Journal · 462 citations

Attention is increasingly focused on the potential individual career and firm-level benefits of international experience for upper level executives. This research examines the relationships between...

Reading Guide

Foundational Papers

Start with Collings and Mellahi (2009, 1720 citations) for talent agenda overview, Rothwell (1994, 588 citations) for continuity practices, then Handler (1990, 556 citations) and Vancil (1987, 552 citations) for family and CEO processes.

Recent Advances

Prioritize Shen and Cannella (2002, 528 citations) on performance impacts; Sharma et al. (2003, 491 citations) on planned behavior; Daily et al. (2000, 462 citations) on international experience.

Core Methods

Theory of planned behavior (Sharma et al., 2003); successor type and turnover analysis (Shen and Cannella, 2002); role adjustment models (Handler, 1990); strategic talent reviews (Collings and Mellahi, 2009).

How PapersFlow Helps You Research Succession Planning

Discover & Search

Research Agent uses searchPapers and citationGraph to map 1720-cited Collings and Mellahi (2009) connections, revealing clusters in family succession like Handler (1990). exaSearch uncovers multinational implementations; findSimilarPapers expands from Rothwell (1994) to related talent pipelines.

Analyze & Verify

Analysis Agent applies readPaperContent to extract succession models from Shen and Cannella (2002), then verifyResponse with CoVe checks performance claims against abstracts. runPythonAnalysis with pandas correlates citation counts and years across 10 papers; GRADE scores evidence strength for family firm hypotheses (Sharma et al., 2003).

Synthesize & Write

Synthesis Agent detects gaps in post-succession turnover literature (Shen and Cannella, 2002), flags contradictions between family and corporate models. Writing Agent uses latexEditText for manuscripts, latexSyncCitations for 1720-cited works, latexCompile for reports, and exportMermaid for succession pipeline diagrams.

Use Cases

"Correlate CEO tenure with succession outcomes across top papers"

Research Agent → searchPapers → Analysis Agent → runPythonAnalysis (pandas on citation/year data) → CSV export of performance correlations from Shen and Cannella (2002) dataset simulation.

"Draft LaTeX review on family firm succession planning"

Synthesis Agent → gap detection → Writing Agent → latexEditText + latexSyncCitations (Handler 1990, Sharma 2003) → latexCompile → PDF with integrated bibliography.

"Find code for simulating talent pipeline models"

Research Agent → paperExtractUrls (Rothwell 1994 analogs) → Code Discovery → paperFindGithubRepo → githubRepoInspect → Python scripts for Monte Carlo succession risk simulations.

Automated Workflows

Deep Research workflow scans 50+ papers via citationGraph from Collings and Mellahi (2009), producing structured reports on talent pipelines. DeepScan applies 7-step CoVe to verify Shen and Cannella (2002) performance claims with GRADE checkpoints. Theorizer generates hypotheses linking international experience (Daily et al., 2000) to succession success.

Try Doxa for Succession Planning Research

Frequently Asked Questions

What defines succession planning?

Succession planning develops internal candidates for leadership roles to ensure continuity (Rothwell, 1994; Collings and Mellahi, 2009).

What methods study succession?

Theory of planned behavior models successor propensity (Sharma et al., 2003); performance analysis examines successor type and turnover (Shen and Cannella, 2002).

What are key papers?

Collings and Mellahi (2009, 1720 citations) reviews talent management; Rothwell (1994, 588 citations) details continuity practices; Handler (1990, 556 citations) covers family transitions.