Transferring leadership across generations is a defining characteristic of family businesses. Yet many successors underperform, and little is known about why. We extend parental control theory to develop a model of parenting effects in family businesses. Primary dyadic data from successors and subordinates in 119 family businesses, supplemented with 24 interviews with family business leaders, shows that predecessors’ parenting style affects successors’ psychological functioning, which impacts employees’ citizenship and counterproductive behaviors. Among firms that make it to the second generation, the seeds of success are partially sown long before succession takes place, drawing attention to the important role of parenting.

代际交接是家族企业的一个决定性特征。然而，许多继任者表现不佳，而原因却鲜为人知。我们扩展了父母控制理论来开发家族企业中的养育效应模型。来自 119 家家族企业的继任者和下属的原始二元数据，辅以对家族企业领导人的 24 次访谈，表明前辈的教养方式影响继任者的心理功能，进而影响员工的公民意识和适得其反的行为。在进入第二代的公司中，部分成功的种子早在继承发生之前就已经播下了，这引起了人们对养育子女的重要作用的关注。