International Journal of Financial Studies

371 KiB

Open AccessReview

Review of Family Business Definitions: Cluster Approach and Implications of Heterogeneous Application for Family Business Research

by Henrik Harms

Int. J. Financial Stud. 2014, 2(3), 280-314; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijfs2030280 - 23 Jul 2014

Cited by 50 | Viewed by 21209

Abstract

This review article displays several attempts to define family businesses as well as a systematization approach to get new insights about the relationship between family business definitions and their application under different conditions such as legal framework, culture or regional understanding of family. Potential explanations for the ambiguity of what is meant by family firms are revealed by reviewing 267 journal articles. A consensus about the object of investigation would result in a deeper understanding of family firms’ uniqueness, might lead to more reliable comparative studies as well as interdisciplinary work (e.g., finance and family firms) and enables a quicker consolidation of family business research, especially in contrast to research on small and medium-sized enterprises and entrepreneurship. Therefore, the present review contributes to the development of family business research by providing an initial attempt to comprehensively systematized existing family firm definitions which could be used by researchers in family business research. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Performance and Behavior of Family Firms)

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233 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Capital Asset Pricing Model Testing at Warsaw Stock Exchange: Are Family Businesses the Remedy for Economic Recessions?

by Jacek Lipiec

Int. J. Financial Stud. 2014, 2(3), 266-279; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijfs2030266 - 22 Jul 2014

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 8269

Abstract

In this article, we test the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) by measuring the performance of two portfolios composed of construction firms: family-controlled and nonfamily controlled. These portfolios were selected from the WIG-Construction (WIG—Warszawski Indeks Giełdowy—Warsaw Stock Exchange Index). The performance of both portfolios was measured in the period from 2006 to 2012 with respect to three sub-periods: (1) pre-crisis period: 2006–2007; (2) crisis period: 2008–2009; and (3) post-crisis period: 2010–2012. This division was constructed in this way to find out how family firms performed in crisis times in relation to nonfamily firms. In addition, the construction portfolio was chosen due to its sensitivity to recessions. When an economy faces a downturn, construction firms are among the first to be exposed to risk. The performance was measured by using the capital asset pricing model with statistical inference. We find that public family firms significantly outperformed non-family peers in the crisis times. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Performance and Behavior of Family Firms)

280 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Corporate Social Responsibility of Family Businesses: An International Approach

by Gérard Hirigoyen and Thierry Poulain-Rehm

Int. J. Financial Stud. 2014, 2(3), 240-265; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijfs2030240 - 9 Jul 2014

Cited by 26 | Viewed by 8935

Abstract

This study analyzes the links between listed family businesses and social responsibility. On the theoretical level, it establishes a relationship between socioemotional wealth, proactive stakeholder engagement, and the social responsibility of family businesses. On a practical level, our results (obtained from a sample of 363 companies) show that family businesses do not differ from non-family businesses in many dimensions of social responsibility. Moreover, family businesses have statistically significant lower ratings for four sub-dimensions of “corporate governance”, namely “balance of power and effectiveness of the Board”, “audit and control mechanisms”, “engagement with shareholders and shareholder structure”, and “executive compensation”. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Performance and Behavior of Family Firms)

298 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Socio Emotional Wealth Preservation in the REIT Industry: An Exploratory Study

by Magdy Noguera and Erick Paulo Cesar Chang

Int. J. Financial Stud. 2014, 2(3), 220-239; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijfs2030220 - 2 Jul 2014

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 6798

Abstract

Our study uses the Socio Emotional Wealth Perspective (SEW) to test our contention that Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) founders are more inclined to satisfy first their non-economic goals rather than satisfying the economic goals of REIT shareholders. We test our hypotheses with an unbalanced panel dataset that includes an average of 66 publicly-traded equity REITs from 1999–2012 that produced 921 REIT-year observations. Our exploratory results provide evidence of SEW preservation as REITs led by founders’ successors tend to underperform; however, the family identification with the REIT affects performance positively. This is one of the first studies that merge the REIT and the family business streams of research. Future directions are suggested. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Performance and Behavior of Family Firms)

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Int. J. Financial Stud., Volume 2, Issue 3 (September 2014) – 4 articles , Pages 220-314

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