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Market opportunities and owner identity: Are family firms different?

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  • Cucculelli, Marco
  • Marchionne, Francesco

Abstract

We test the hypothesis that ownership of a firm does not affect the firm's ability to seize market opportunities once decisions about productive structure are taken into account. By grouping firms in size clusters having a similar distance between the actual and the optimal size, we assess how the sensitivity of a firm's sales to market demand changes in response to differences in the owner's identity. We use data from a panel of 4696 continental western European firms over the period 1995–2010 and Eurostat 3-digit sectoral data on firm size distribution. Empirical evidence rejects the hypothesis of ownership irrelevance: family firms are less sensitive to market demand than other firms, in particular when the actual size of the firm is larger than optimal and in the case of both founder- and heir-run family firms.

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  • Cucculelli, Marco & Marchionne, Francesco, 2012. "Market opportunities and owner identity: Are family firms different?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 476-495.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:corfin:v:18:y:2012:i:3:p:476-495
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2012.02.001
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    Cited by:

    1. Paola Cardamone & Valeria Pupo & Fernanda Ricotta, 2012. "University And Firm Performance In The Italian Manufacturing Sector," Working Papers 201207, Università della Calabria, Dipartimento di Economia, Statistica e Finanza "Giovanni Anania" - DESF.
    2. Marco Cucculelli & Lidia Mannarino & Valeria Pupo & Fernanda Ricotta, 2014. "Owner‐Management, Firm Age, and Productivity in Italian Family Firms," Journal of Small Business Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(2), pages 325-343, April.
    3. Lidia Mannarino & Valeria Pupo & Fernanda Ricotta, 2016. "Family Firms and Productivity: The Role of Institutional Quality," International Journal of Business and Management, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 11(10), pages 343-343, September.
    4. Zanon, Johanna & Scholl-Grissemann, Ursula & Kallmuenzer, Andreas & Kleinhansl, Nikolas & Peters, Mike, 2019. "How promoting a family firm image affects customer perception in the age of social media," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 28-37.
    5. Carlos Poblete & Felipe Rifo & Joana Huaman, 2021. "The Role of Circular Business Modeling in the Entrepreneurial Identity-Construction Process," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-25, December.
    6. Claudia Pongelli & Matteo Giuliano Caroli & Marco Cucculelli, 2016. "Family business going abroad: the effect of family ownership on foreign market entry mode decisions," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 47(3), pages 787-801, October.
    7. Paola Cardamone & Valeria Pupo & Fernanda Ricotta, 2016. "Do Firms Benefit from University Research? Evidence from Italy," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 2(3), pages 445-471, November.
    8. Marco Cucculelli & Ivano Dileo & Marco Pini, 2022. "Filling the void of family leadership: institutional support to business model changes in the Italian Industry 4.0 experience," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 47(1), pages 213-241, February.
    9. Ang, Tze Chuan 'Chewie' & Azad, A.S.M. Sohel & Pham, Thu A.T. & Zhong, Angel, 2021. "Firm efficiency and stock returns: Australian evidence," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Family firms; Size class; Entrepreneurship; Ownership;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Theory
    • L11 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms
    • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance
    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship

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