Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/193175 
Year of Publication: 
2019
Series/Report no.: 
Economics Discussion Papers No. 2019-12
Publisher: 
Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW), Kiel
Abstract: 
Evidence from around the globe shows that family firms are enduring, resilient forms of profit-seeking and not an archaic, transient form that will inevitably disappear. Social science research has tended to characterize the family values of these firms as producing "efficiency distortions" that adversely affect their financial performance. The author suggests an alternative heuristic approach of treating family firms as kinship enterprises that endure beyond the life of the firm. This approach enables us to understand how the timing of decisions about capital accumulation, expansion and diversification, as well as managerial organization, are shaped by kinship sentiments and intergenerational commitments without setting up an opposition between economic and kinship goals.
Subjects: 
family firms
kinship
Italian firms
Italian-Chinese joint enterprises
JEL: 
A13
B55
D22
D91
L21
Z13
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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