We argue that changes in the inheritance system affect incentives leading to sibling rivalry among descendants and therefore have a material impact on family firm performance. Using South Korea's 1991 inheritance law reform that stipulates the equal distribution of a deceased person's property...

This paper explores the stock market performance of acquisitions and divestitures where both, one, or neither of the companies in the transaction are family firms. We find that acquirer shareholder returns are highest when family firms buy businesses from non-family firm divesters, especially...

Non-profit higher education institutions (HEIs)' donors want to insure that their money is used correctly. The agency tensions in non-profit organizations, and specifically in HEIs, can lead to family involvement when families are the donors in the early stage of these organizations. The...

Despite of the extensive research developed on Family Business (FB), there is no consensus about the definition of this type of companies. The main goal of our research is to provide a simple alternative to the existent definitions of FB, without losing significant information and capturing...

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,...

Motivated by the dual agency environment in founding family firms, we examine how family firms provide compensation incentives to nonfamily executives. Nonfamily executives receive weaker risk-taking incentives and pay-for-performance incentives when family ownership is high and when family...

We investigate the role of multiple large shareholders (MLS) in corporate risk-taking. Using a sample of publicly listed French family firms over the period 2003-2012, we show that the presence, number, and voting power of MLS are associated with higher risk-taking. Our results suggest that MLS...

We study the impact of succession tournaments on risk-taking in family firms. More sons (less daughters) in controlling families are associated with higher income volatility and lower performance – especially, in opaque private firms with pyramidal ownership structure. Contestants exhibit...

This paper uses a sample of Chinese firms to examine the impact of corporate opacity on the relationship between family control and firms' cost of debt. We find that family control is associated with a lower cost of debt on average, and a negative impact exists mainly in firms with relatively...

This paper investigates the impact of corporate acquisitions on CEO compensation and CEO turnover of family firms in Continental Europe. We find that CEOs in family firms do not experience an increase in their compensation during the post-acquisition period, while there is a positive and...