This study examines how family firm characteristics affect capital structure decisions. In our analysis we disentangle the influence of three distinct components of a family firm: ownership, supervisory and management board activities by the founding family. Thereby, we use a unique panel...

Around the world (with the U.S. and U.K. as exceptions) concentrated ownership structures and controlling shareholders are predominant even among listed firms. We provide novel empirical evidence how such controlling shareholders, in particular founding families, affect payout policy decisions....

This paper analyzes how founders and their families influence R&D intensity. Information on R&D comes from a large-scale, bi-annual survey among listed German firms. We find that R&D intensity is higher in firms that are actively managed by the family. The impact of family control (via voting...

Recent research indicates that the majority of listed firms in Germany (and also in many other countries around the world) have a dominant owner rather than being widely-held. Hence, owner-dominated firms comprise an important subset of listed companies. This article introduces the concept of an...

We analyse to what extent the accrual anomaly is related to the choice of the accounting system as well as firm-level heterogeneity in corporate governance mechanisms. Using a unique dataset of listed German firms over the period 1995 to 2005 we first corroborate former results indicating that...

This paper analyzes the impact of model complexity on the net present value distribution and the expected default probability of equity investments in project finance. Model complexity is analyzed along two dimensions: simulation complexity and forecast complexity. We aim to identify model...

We examine the effects of family firms on real earnings management (REM) and accrual-based earnings management (ABEM). Using socioemotional wealth as a theoretical framework and considering the different implications of REM and ABEM on family firms' transgenerational sustainability, we...

Im Sommer 2003 beschlossen die StartUp-Initiative und das Center for Entrepreneurial and Financial Studies (CEFS), gemeinsam eine wissenschaftliche Untersuchung durchzuführen, um Erkenntnisse über die aktuelle Entwicklung junger, innovativer Unternehmen in Deutschland zu gewinnen. Im...

Since private equity investments are not publicly traded, a key issue in measuring investment risks of institutional private equity investors arises from a careful measurement of investment returns in the first place. Prices of private equity investments are typically observed at low frequency...

Entrepreneurship education plays a crucial role in shaping the attitudes of students towards entrepreneurship as well as spurring the creation of future young companies. It is a crucial topic in any economy and increasingly becoming key on the agenda for universities around the world. In this...