"Business Families in Mexico: Succession and Business Continuity"

Between 2010 and 2018, about 70 percent of the 500 most important companies in Mexico corresponded to companies of Mexican origin, of which an average of 80 percent operated with directories in which at least two relatives had participated. Our main objective is to know the type of business families and the general type of trajectory that company followed. With this work we want to contribute to closing the historiographical gap in family businesses and business families in Mexico. The historical perspective focuses on the configuration of the most important business families and how their members managed arrival and generational change processes, as well as the positioning of the new generations in the shareholders groups and the directories. The biographical method and the reconstruction of business genealogies help us to reconstruct the history of the companies themselves from multiple dimensions. In particular, we want to analyze: a) family structures in the initial companies, b) changes in management to endure and their respective family changes, c) as well as the new companies that the following generations have created, regardless of their importance now, and d) composition of directories in companies with greater durability and startups. The questions to be answered are: how social structures have been fundamental in starting family businesses and setting up in business families in lung run? What elements of the socio-parental and sociocultural organization stand out in the competition of Mexican family business? The theoretical approach is based on the recent debates of business history, family capitalism and the variations of capitalism, trying to discuss the importance of family structure in Mexican business. The hypothesis sustained is that a business family combining perdurability of some business whit new companies like high tech startups and innovation, evidencing accumulation and knowledge control by new family members.