scholarly journals Conflicting Selves: Family Owners' Multiple Goals and Self-Control Agency Problems in Private Firms

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 362-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfredo De Massis ◽  
Josip Kotlar ◽  
Pietro Mazzola ◽  
Tommaso Minola ◽  
Salvatore Sciascia

This study examines the self–control agency problems associated with family ownership in private firms. Theorizing that family owners’ inner conflicts between economic and non–economic goals lead to competing preferences in the allocation of financial resources, we predict that the relationship between financial slack and firm profitability is contingent on factors that increase the potential salience of either economic or noneconomic goals for family owners. Accordingly, our findings suggest that self–control is a separate source of agency costs in private firms and that family ownership is not as crucial as owners’ goals in predicting the impact of financial slack on firm profitability.

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elfina Astrella Sambuaga

<p>This study aims to provide empirical evidence related to the influence of family ownership, tax reform on corporate debt policy, and further prove the impact on the firm value.This study examined the effect of changes in tax rates in 2009 and 2010 on the relationship between family ownership structure and corporate debt policy. The population of this research is manufacturing companies listed in Indonesia Stock Exchange for 8 consecutive years (2006-2013), with the period of observation for 7 years (2007-2013). A period of 8 years was taken to see a company that is consistently listed on the Stock Exchange prior to the end of the observation period. The result of this study shows that tax reform from progressive tax rates to a flat rate does not affect the relationship between family ownership structure and corporate debt policy. In contrast to the year 2009, changing rate from 28% to 25% in late 2010 was a significant effect on the debt policy with the company of family ownership. Based on the results, it was found that family ownership and debt policy significantly affect the company's enterprise value. It can be concluded, the higher the family ownership, the company's value would be diminished. Instead, the company's value will increase when the company adds to its debt policy.</p><p>Keywords : debt policy, family ownership, firm value, tax reform.</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Feng Dong ◽  
Xiao Wang ◽  
Jiawen Chen

Purpose This study aims to investigate the impact of family ownership on cooperative research and development (R&D). Drawing on the ability and willingness paradox framework in family business research, the authors suggest that family ownership influences cooperative R&D via two opposing mechanisms: power concentration and wealth concentration. It also deepens the current understanding of the boundary conditions of informal institutions for the impact of family ownership on cooperative R&D by investigating the moderating role of political ties. Design/methodology/approach The authors analyze a panel of 610 Chinese manufacturing family firms and 2,127 firm-year observations from 2009 to 2017. Fixed effects regression analysis is used to test the hypotheses, with the two-stage Heckman model to address sample selection bias. Findings The research findings indicate that family ownership has an inverted U-shaped relationship with cooperative R&D and political ties moderate the relationship in such a way that the inverted U-shaped relationship will be steeper in firms with more political ties than in firms with fewer political ties. Practical implications Family ownership influences firms’ cooperative R&D through the positive effect of power concentration and the negative effect of wealth concentration. Family owners should, therefore, take advantage of concentrated power, for instance, by adapting quickly and committing sufficient resources to cooperative R&D opportunities, while controlling path-dependent relationship development caused by concentrated family wealth. The effect of political ties on the relationship between family ownership and cooperative R&D is found to be a double-edged sword. Originality/value This study extends the ability and willingness paradox framework and provides novel insights into cooperative R&D in family businesses by integrating power concentration and wealth concentration associated with family ownership. Moreover, this study provides a contingency perspective and introduces the moderating role of political ties in shaping cooperative R&D in family firms.


2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (7) ◽  
pp. 1675-1694 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Cirillo ◽  
Mario Ossorio ◽  
Luca Pennacchio

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to contribute to innovation and family business literature by establishing whether institutional involvement of private equity (PE) and banks in family firms moderates the relationship between family ownership and research and development (R&D) investment. Design/methodology/approach This paper used the socio-emotional wealth lens to carry out an econometric analysis on a large sample of Italian non-listed family firms. Using the sample selection model meant it was possible to account for potential selection bias arising from firms’ discretionary disclosure of R&D expenditure. Findings Family involvement in ownership reduced firms’ R&D intensity. When PE investors also held shares, the negative relationship was diverted. Bank involvement, however, did not have a significant effect on the relationship. Research limitations/implications This paper enriches the innovation management literature by increasing the understanding of the determinants of R&D investments in family firms. The results support the view that non-financial priorities in family firms are contingent upon non-family shareholders. This enriches the debate about the heterogeneity of family businesses and is consistent with the socio-emotional wealth framework, which has shown that risk preferences may vary if desired and actual performances are different. This may be a fruitful area for future research. Originality/value Contradicting the assumption that institutional owners all share the same perspective, this study is the first to assess the impact of different institutional shareholders on R&D intensity of private family firms.


Author(s):  
Amy M. Donnelly ◽  
Steve Kaplan ◽  
Jeremy Vinson

Prior research finds that trait skepticism influences auditors’ judgments but that situational variables may interact with trait skepticism. We examine whether ego depletion, an exhaustion of individuals’ self-control resources which limits one’s ability to vigilantly process information and apply critical thinking, moderates the relationship between trait skepticism and auditor judgment. We contend that when not depleted auditors’ trait skepticism will influence judgment; conversely, when depleted, auditors’ trait skepticism will not influence auditors’ judgments due to a lack of necessary cognitive resources to vigilantly process information. Depleted auditors are expected to adopt a less cognitively demanding strategy and simply make more skeptical judgments, as they expect this is the more acceptable, safer judgment when accountable. Results from an experiment involving a risk assessment task support our expectations: when not depleted, auditors’ judgments are in-line with their trait skepticism but, when depleted, auditors make more skeptical judgments regardless of their trait skepticism.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Omar Farooq ◽  
Harit Satt ◽  
Fatima Zahra Bendriouch ◽  
Diae Lamiri

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to document the impact of dividend policies on the downside risk in stock prices.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use the data for non-financial firms from the MENA region to test our arguments by estimating the pooled OLS regressions. The data cover the period between 2010 and 2018.FindingsThis paper shows that firms with higher dividend payouts have significantly lower downside risk in their stock prices than the other firms. The findings of this paper are robust across various proxies of dividend policy and across various sub-samples. This paper contends that lower downside risk associated with the stock prices of firms paying high dividends is due to the fact that these firms have lower agency problems. Lower agency problems reduce the downside risk in stock prices.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, most of the prior research (covering the MENA region) overlooks the impact of dividend policy on the downside risk in stock prices. This paper fills this gap by documenting the relationship between the two by using the data for firms from the MENA region.


2014 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fariss Terry Mousa ◽  
Jaideep Chowdhury

Purpose – The slack-innovation relationship has interested scholars for years. The authors aim to delve into the impact of financial slack on firm innovation by replicating a classic study arguing that this relationship has an inverse U-shape. Design/methodology/approach – The sample consists of all US firms that were publicly traded between 1993 and 2011. The authors employ the standard econometrics methodology of panel regression with firm-fixed effect and time-fixed effect to estimate the regression equation of firm innovation on financial slack. Findings – The authors find that the relationship between financial slack and R&D investments is similar to that suggested by earlier authors, thus enhancing the generalizability of this important finding in management research. The authors also find that this relationship holds even during economic downturns. Originality/value – The authors replicate Nohria and Gulati's classic study by considering the impact of slack on innovation. The authors also move away from survey data, as used by Nohria and Gulati. The authors utilize actual firm-level data for a large sample of US publicly traded firms from 1993 to 2011, thus enhancing the generalizability of these findings.


Author(s):  
Wei Liu ◽  
Chunquan Yu ◽  
Shixiong Cheng ◽  
Jingyi Xu ◽  
Yuzhao Wu

Taking China’s carbon emissions and trading pilot (CCETP) as a quasi-natural experiment, this paper examines the impact of CCETP on publicly listed private firms’ innovation input and the moderating effect of the firms’ political connection based on the difference-in-differences model. The results show that CCETP has a significantly positive effect on the innovation input of Chinese publicly listed private firms. Moreover, the political connection of executives exhibits a positive moderating effect on CCETP’s impact on innovation input. Meanwhile, the effect is more significant in regions with high environmental protection investment and large publicly listed private firms. The conclusions could provide some policy enlightenment for China’s carbon market, as well as a rational adjustment of the relationship between political connection and innovation input of publicly listed private firms in the future.


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