According to popular wisdom, people tend to get more conservative as they age. But is this actually true? And if so, how does it impact CEOs and the organizations they lead? If we look to previous research, business leaders indeed show a tendency toward risk aversion as their corporate careers wind down, favoring quick wins […]
The voice of minority shareholders in family-owned firms
Family-owned firms dominate the global economy: according to PwC’s latest Global Family Business Survey, they contribute more than half of the world’s annual GDP and generate around two-thirds of employment. Their strength is also seen in new business ventures: 85% of start-ups are launched with family money. As outlined in a previous post, an important […]
Are family firms really more socially responsible?
For socially responsible firms, corporate performance is more than financial statements and shareholder returns. Looking beyond the balance sheet, they aspire to serve all stakeholders, from employees, customers and suppliers, to local communities and society at large. In the realm of family-owned firms, a core dimension of this focus is socioemotional wealth (SEW), which refers […]
How do informal institutions influence family-owned firms?
As outlined in my previous post, the prevalence, strategy and performance of family-controlled firms (FCFs) differs across countries, yet research has primarily underscored formal institutions like regulations and legal frameworks to justify these differences. In our research, we widened the scope to explore how informal systems such as social ordering systems, hierarchies and values might […]
The impact of informal institutions in family firms
Family-controlled firms (FCFs) are the world’s most common organizational structure, with distinct strategies and characteristics that set them apart from non-family-controlled firms. Around the world, the prevalence, strategy and financial success of family-owned firms all vary but what are the core drivers of these differences? To date, research has largely focused on the impact of […]