Governing the Family Enterprise: Practices, Performance and Research

Intergenerational ownership succession

“…The increased awareness regarding their own situation was helpful for the students' individuation process and helped them make longterm career decisions which was useful for the families to proactively plan for succession. Approaching a need for succession is furthermore a common reason to install functions such as family meetings and family councils or other forms of supporting arenas (Gersick & Feliu, 2014). With family business becoming an institutionalized field, there are seminars, executive training, a substantial literature, and specialized advisors available to assist with ownership succession issues .…”

Executive compensation in family firms: The effect of multiple family members

“…Recent family business studies call for more in-depth analyses of emerging economies to develop an understanding of the contextual factors involved (Sharma and Chua, 2013). Recent studies of corporate governance in family firms (Gersick and Neus, 2013;Goel et al, 2013) also suggest that the contextual factors of different markets should be considered, as more variations may be found. 2 In this respect, the unique characteristics of an emerging market such as China provide an ideal setting in which to gain insights into dimensions of family business that are less known in developed markets.…”

Family Business Survival and the Role of Boards

“…The unique governance properties of family firms associated with stable ownership is central to the development of non-tradable assets such as bonding and bridging social capital and reputational assets (Gedajlovic & Carney, 2010). Accordingly, family firms may be better able to build long-standing relationships with trading partners (Arregle et al, 2007), advisors (Gersick and Feliu, 2013), financiers and outside family members. This relational capital may contribute to a higher likelihood of survival for family firms since closer partner firms may be more willing to extend credit terms in times of trading difficulty.…”

“…The boards of family firms play a central role in deciding upon strategy and differ from boards in non-family firms (Bammens et al, 2011;Gersick & Feliu, 2013;Goel, Jussila & Ikäheimonen, 2013). Accordingly, we examine the role of board composition as this, more than any other group, has ultimate control of the direction of the firm to ensure its survival as an independent entity.…”