Centre for Owner-Managed Businesses

Research reports and articles

In recent years a growing interest has been found in ownership structures and different business transfer models. Below is shown a small selection of some of the research within the field. Find more articles and publications from our faculty under our Staff page.

 

Article: Family assets can play a significant role in family businesses
Family businesses need to identify how their core assets fit with the current economic environment; how they can be transferred to the next generation, and how they can add value to the firm’s business strategy. Some family assets are intangible - the family name, their history, values-based leadership and skills. According to this article from Insead by Morten Bennedsen the planning of the succession and the continuation of family assets to the next generation are essential for the survival and success of the business.

Enduring firms transfer assets and knowledge effectively
Morten Bennedsen
, December 2016

Inside the Family Firm: The Role of Families in Succession Decisions and Performance
This paper uses a unique dataset from Denmark to investigate the impact of family characteristics in corporate decision making and the consequences of these decisions on firm performance. It investigates the factors determining whether family businesses´ decides to appoint a family-related or external CEO. The study finds that family successions have a large negative causal impact on firm performance: Operating profitability on assets falls by at least four percentage points around CEO transitions.

PDF icon Inside the Family Firm: The Role of Families in Succession Decisions and Performance
Morten Bennedsen, Kasper Meisner Nielsen, Francisco Perez-Gonzalez and Daniel Wolfenzon, 2007
Article: Family Businesses - United by diversity
In this article Professor Morten Bennedsen problematize the lacking existence of a clear and general definition of the term "family business".

Morten Bennedsen defines family companies as companies with families as either owners or managers or a combination of the two. They must involve more than one family member, and there has to be a succession, or a planned succession, from one generation to another. In the article Morten Bennedsens explain that this basic model comes in four main flavours.

United by diversity
Morten Bennedsen, April 2015

 

The page was last edited by: Centre for Owner-Managed Businesses // 12/01/2023