Although participation of women in entrepreneurship continues to grow, a gender-performance gap persists. While the differential inputs and values perspectives have investigated both external and internal forces that help explain this gap, neither perspective has considered an important cognitive mechanism that captures gender differences: identity. The purpose of this article is to examine the role of impostor fears in shaping entrepreneurial identity and the desire for business growth. Entrepreneurship has long been associated with masculine notions of success, which may lead women to discount themselves as 'real'entrepreneurs or successful in the context of these masculine norms. Our goal is to draw attention to women entrepreneurs' imposter fears in order to understand how women think about and construct their identity as entrepreneurs and subsequently contemplate the success and growth of their ventures. We also propose mitigating factors that can disrupt gendered norms and facilitate self-efficacy for women entrepreneurs in the pursuit of business growth.

Andrea Ruma has worked for three years at Ruma's Fruit and Gift Basket (Ruma's), a 112- year- old family business in Massachusetts. Andrea is trying to decide whether she will stay in the business or leave to go back to teaching. The problem for Andrea is that her father, Jim Ruma, will not share any information on the company strategy, finances, estate planning, or succession planning, nor provide her with any feedback on whether she is doing a good job. Although Jim is 72 years old, he is an active and opportunistic businessman. In the last twenty years, he has gotten out of the wholesale fruit business and has entered five new business areas, all without any planning. Although the company is profitable and provides good income to four family members, Andrea has doubts as to whether she should commit to the company with the idea of possibly taking over the business as the only viable fourth generation family member.

Family owned and managed firms represent a large proportion of businesses operating domestically and globally. Dynamics introduced by family members can develop into significant problems for the family-owned firm, and have far-reaching implications for its performance. One challenge entails coping with a family member employee who, for various reasons, behaves in ways that have toxic and damaging effects on the business. We label this phenomenon 'the Fredo effect,' referencing the incompetent brother from The Godfather books and movies. Herein, we discuss the Fredo effect in a family firm context, why the Fredo effect is unique to family firms, and how the effect develops over time in family relationships. We further analyze how the Fredo effect hurts family firms in terms of leadership succession and performance, and what family firm leaders can do to address