Inside the Family Firm

Danish alternation of generation in Quarterly Journal of Economics

In the latest May issue of the prestigious Quarterly Journal of Economics, one of the world’s leading economical quarterlies, Morten Bennedsen and Kasper M. Nielsen together with co-authors from Stern and Columbia publish the article ”Inside the Family Firm: The Role of Families in Succession Decision and Performance”.

The article analyses the generational changes in small and medium sized companies and brings new knowledge of how family structure affects the wellbeing and development of family businesses. One of the main conclusions of the article is that the traditional model of generational change – the apprentice model – is very costly to many businesses and that professionally educated managers add great value to a business.

- We are very happy for the way our work has been received, because empirical economical knowledge based on Danish data is often considered too local in an international context. However, with this research project we have gone all the way from something important and interesting in a Danish context- for example, there is a chapter about our project in the latest growth report from Ministry of Economics and Business Affairs – to this article which is innovative and general enough to be accepted by the prestigious Quarterly Journal of Economics, says Bennedsen and Nielsen.