ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a review of literature regarding female entrepreneurship, family business succession, and socio-cultural impact on business. It explains a case study on a female successor in a Spanish family firm. This case highlights the impact of industry on succession success, particularly in the case of father daughter transfer. In Spain, the primogeniture criterion has been widely used over time, probably because of its convenience, exempting parents of the responsibility of selecting the most qualified child. The chapter focuses on the unique impact of a cultural context of family firms around the world but, despite similarities in economic and family spheres in western countries, it is probable that female entrepreneurial activity and family business activity would take different forms in different cultures. Women are generally more intensively affected by the stereotypes and pressure of social roles. In Spain the roles ascribed to women are considered to be more conventional and less disruptive of the established order.
