This chapter focuses on a particular typology of family firms – the larger ones – in Europe. Its aim is to identify and discuss the main common characteristics of big European family firms, as well as the determinants of their enduring persistence. In order to achieve this, the dynamic and...

Purpose: This paper is an analysis based on the comparison of the Greek Depression with the Great Depression of 1929 in the US. Design/methodology/approach: This analysis does neither focus on the pre-crisis period, nor on the manifestation of the crisis or the structural problems and economic...

In a simulation experiment, building on the abductive simulation approach of Brenner and Werker (2007), we test historical explanations for why German firms came to surpass British and France firms and to dominate the global synthetic dye industry for three decades before World War 1 while the...

We review and discuss research on the development of regional entrepreneurship over time. A particular focus is on the long-term persistence of regional levels of entrepreneurship, its explanation, and its meaning for economic development. What is the state of empirical research in this field,...

We describe and compare the development trajectories of two German regions, South Saxony and Mecklenburg, with a special focus on entrepreneurship and innovation. South Saxony has a long history of self-employment and knowledge generation that results in a persistent culture of innovative...

The paper analyzes the financial crisis of through the lens of market failures and regulatory failures. We present a case that there were four primary failures contributing to the crisis: excessive risk-taking in the financial sector due to mispriced government guarantees; regulatory focus on...

The paper analyzes the financial crisis of 2007-2009 through the lens of market failures and regulatory failures and presents a case that there were four primary failures contributing to the crisis: excessive risk-taking in the financial sector due to mispriced government guarantees; regulatory...

The Thomson VentureXpert database has been used for over two decades by practitioners and academics to benchmark and judge the performance of private equity and venture capital. A closer look at aggregated and individual figures, however, reveals severe anomalies in the underlying data which are...

This paper examines board composition and CEO turnover when a public company is taken private by a private equity group in an LBO, using a new data set of all public to private transactions in the UK between 1998 and 2003. We find that when a company goes private, the board size is reduced and...

One of the most popular investment anecdotes relates how Isaac Newton, after cashing in some large early gains, staked his fortune on the success of the South Sea Company of 1720 and lost heavily in the ensuing crash. However, this tale is based on only a few scraps of hard evidence, some of...