The purpose of the paper is to examine one strategic issue: CEO succession in Family-Owned Businesses (FOB) from a theoretical perspective. First this paper reviews several existing conceptual frameworks of CEO succession in family-owned businesses in management literature. After reviewing the different factors considered in existing frameworks, a modified integrative theoretical framework is proposed. Considering the unique characteristics of FOB in the US and China, several propositions are presented about the differences in CEO succession in US and Chinese FOB. This paper also discusses empirical studies on CEO succession in FOB in the two countries to increase the congruence between the theoretical and operational levels, to clarify concepts and variables of in CEO succession process and the relationships among those variables.