Verlag:
LUISS Guido Carli, Department of Economics and Business, Arcelli Centre for Monetary and Financial Studies, Rome
Zusammenfassung:
This paper tests the impact of family ownership on firms' export decisions using a rich data set of about 20,000 Italian manufacturers. The results reveal that family ownership increases the probability that firms export, although the effect weakens as ownership concentration rises. The benefit of family owners is especially pronounced when they retain control rights (ownership is aligned with control) and seek the support of external managers (ownership is partially separated from management). The role of family owners in promoting export appears to have a somewhat unsophisticated nature: family ownership promotes export particularly in industries characterized by traditional technologies and towards nearby and familiar markets. The findings support the hypothesis that families better internalize the long-run benefits of internationalization, but that their limited competencies could attenuate this benefit in export activities with a high degree of complexity.