Chapter 14: Enabling Family Business Resilience – The Role of Female Leadership: Evidence From a Chinese Family Business

Research on what makes family business resilient and why resilience matters in family businesses is in development. Drawing on the upper echelon theory, we examine the impact of female leadership on resilience development. Semi-structured interviews were performed in a selected family business. These were complemented by secondary data available from online publications. Results from the case study suggest that resilience consists of abilities to prepare for, control, adapt to, and absorb change. Evidence further indicates female-embodied attributes, female-enabled family cohesion, female-empowered governance, and female-characterized resource orchestration lead to the development of resilience.