Many start-ups chose to compete with incumbent firms using one of two generic strategies: cost leadership or differentiation. Our study demonstrates how this choice depends on whether the startup was founded out of necessity. Our results, based on a representative data set of 4,568 German...

Many start-ups chose to compete with incumbent firms using one of two generic strategies: cost leadership or differentiation. Our study demonstrates how this choice depends on whether the startup was founded out of necessity. Our results, based on a representative data set of 4,568 German...

Prior research has analyzed R&D spending in family and founder firms. Yet, little is known about the economic and technological importance of innovations in these types of firms. Using patent citation data, we show that founder-managed firms, which we argue favor an entrepre-neurial orientation,...

We study how ownership similarity between two firms affects the likelihood of an acquisition between them. Assortative matching arguments suggest that similarity between acquiring and target firms can encourage acquisition behavior since more similar partners can better understand one another...

This study presents the results of a comprehensive meta-analysis on the financial performance of family firms. Drawing on a sample of 380 studies, we find that family firms show economically weak, albeit statistically significant, superior performance compared to non-family firms. Furthermore,...

This note investigates whether and when human capital selectively trained at the highest levels constitutes a resource that will sustain superior rents. Our study of a group of over 400 star CEOs who have been celebrated on the covers of major U.S. business magazines established that there is an...

Many start-ups chose to compete with incumbent firms using one of two generic strategies: cost leadership or differentiation. Our study demonstrates how this choice depends on whether the startup was founded out of necessity. Our results, based on a representative data set of 4,568 German...

This study presents the results of a meta-analysis of the financial performance of family firms. Drawing on a sample of 380 studies, we find that family firms show an economically weak, albeit statistically significant, superior performance compared to non-family firms. Furthermore, we find...

We study successions from a non-family CEO back to a family CEO, which we label “Type-R” successions. In our sample of 489 Italian family firms experiencing the departure of nonfamily CEOs, these successions represent 42% of all cases. Our difference-in-differences results indicate that...