The practice of adopting adults, even if one has biological children, makes Japanese family firms unusually competitive. Our nearly population-wide panel of postwar listed nonfinancial firms shows inherited family firms more important in postwar Japan than generally realized, and also performing...

The corporate world today is changing fast. To survive firms must be competitive, ready for changes, exploiting opportunities presented by globalization, finding finance when crisis hits, and, generally, to be able to adapt to new challenges more rapidly than possibly ever before in corporate...

The corporate world today is changing fast. To survive firms must be competitive, ready for changes, exploiting opportunities presented by globalization, finding finance when crisis hits, and, generally, to be able to adapt to new challenges more rapidly than possibly ever before in corporate...

Family firms depend on a succession of capable heirs to stay afloat. If talent and IQ are inherited, this problem is mitigated. If, however, progeny talent and IQ display mean reversion (or worse), family firms are eventually doomed. This is the essence of the critique of family firms in...