Deciphering Ownership of Family Business Groups

Introducing ownership innovation as an approach to study family firms ownership practices

“…For this reason, large, complex, dynamic, and fast-changing family firms are likely to need more ownership innovations than small, simple, and stable family firms. Particularly for large family firms, the critical factor in family businesses is the complex ownership structure and owners' ability to maintain stability among owners and between ownership and business (Pihkala et al, 2019). Issues of ownership, representation, management, and financial returns are subjected to family and personal development considerations (Jaffe & Lane, 2004).…”

Emerging Market Multinational Family Business Groups and the Use of Family Managers in Foreign Subsidiaries

“…What differentiates EFBGs from family businesses the most is the complexity of decision-making process-whether it is due to their structure, ownership, or interaction with society (Khanna and Yafeh 2007), or as an evolving system that is influenced by their adaptivity, self-organization and emergence (Mukherjee et al 2019). EFBGs are considerably more diverse horizontally and vertically than family businesses due to the large number of legally independent affiliations interconnected via family ownership (Pihkala et al 2019). Unlike the family business that can be rather narrowly focusing on certain lines of business, EFBGs require a greater managerial capacity to strategically process information and coordinate business activities (Zellweger 2017).…”

“…Nevertheless, we would still expect the generalizability of our findings not to be significantly influenced by the origins of the family business group. The general emphasis that family business groups have is the promotion of family values and family wealth maximization, and it is inevitable that family members are involved in decision-making activities and the responsibility to various degrees (Carney 1998;Carney and Gedajlovic 2002;Deephouse and Jaskiewicz 2013;Daspit et al 2018;Gómez-Mejía et al 2007;Piana et al 2018;Pihkala et al 2019). Purkayastha et al (2017) show that family ownership in Indian business groups can be beneficial at the beginning of the internationalization, and Hernández et al (2018) find family ownership may encourage Italian family business to select more risky international markets to invest.…”

“…EFBGs are defined as a set of legally independent affiliations found in emerging markets that are tightly interconnected with each other through various forms of family ownership. While family ownership tends to be overlooked in the U.S. and U.K., it is quite common in other parts of the world, including many emerging economies (Edwards et al 2019;Hernandez and Guillén 2018;Rivkin 2001, 2006;La Porta et al 1999;Mukherjee et al 2019;Piana et al 2018;Pihkala et al 2019;Rosa et al 2019). EFBGs tend to put a stronger emphasis on the promotion of family values and family wealth maximization across their international network of subsidiaries (Arregle et al 2007;Carney and Gedajlovic 2002;Gómez-Mejía et al 2007;Peng and Jiang 2010;Steier 2009;Young et al 2008).…”

“…EFBGs tend to put a stronger emphasis on the promotion of family values and family wealth maximization across their international network of subsidiaries (Arregle et al 2007;Carney and Gedajlovic 2002;Gómez-Mejía et al 2007;Peng and Jiang 2010;Steier 2009;Young et al 2008). This often requires EFBGs to concentrate decision-making activities and management among family members (Carney 1998;Daspit et al 2018;Deephouse and Jaskiewicz 2013;Pihkala et al 2019). Therefore, family managers enjoy direct access to decision making through their regular involvement in management (Sirmon and Hitt 2003).…”