Our findings build upon the existent family business and MA literature in several ways.
Firstly, our study adds to the limited knowledge on the specific set-up of MA systems in
family-controlled firms. We have also introduced and empirically tested a framework to
assess the impact of changing levels of family influence on organisational structure. We show
that MA systems in medium-sized firms become especially professionalised and intensified
during the transition from a family business to a non-family business, which generates
implications for both practice and theory. Non-family managers who consider working for
family businesses can use the level of family involvement in order to predict what steps
towards professionalisation he or she might face. Furthermore, members of controlling
families can systematically drive MA professionalisation in order to ease business succession
or the transition to a non-family business. Therefore,