From small businesses to large-scale multinationals, most of the world’s enterprises are family-owned. For their heirs, joining the family business isn’t always a given, with many opting to develop their careers outside the organization. This article in The Economist touches on some of its pros and cons. The resistible lure of the family firm […]
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 […]
Family council: preventative medicine or surgical intervention?
If we were to apply medical terminology to the realm of family-owned firms, our first observation would be that all families run the risk of contracting “diseases” and sustaining “injuries.” When the family also owns a business, however, these risks are substantially higher. No business family is “immune” to these risks, which when left unchecked, […]