IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ucp/jlawec/y2003v46i2p653-84.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Founding-Family Ownership, Corporate Diversification, and Firm Leverage

Author

Listed:
  • Anderson, Ronald C
  • Reeb, David M

Abstract

Anecdotal accounts imply that founding families routinely engage in opportunistic activities that exploit minority shareholders. We gauge the severity of these moral hazard conflicts by examining whether founding families--as large, undiversified blockholders--seek to reduce firm-specific risk by influencing the firm's diversification and capital structure decisions. Surprisingly, we find that family firms actually experience less diversification than, and use similar levels of debt as, nonfamily firms. Consistent with these findings, we also find that direct measures of equity risk are not related to founding-family ownership, which suggests that family holdings are not limited to low-risk businesses or industries. Although founding-family ownership and influence are prevalent and significant in U.S. industrial firms, the results do not support the hypothesis that continued founding-family ownership in public firms leads to minority-shareholder wealth expropriation. Instead, our results show that minority shareholders in large U.S. firms benefit from the presence of founding families.

Suggested Citation

  • Anderson, Ronald C & Reeb, David M, 2003. "Founding-Family Ownership, Corporate Diversification, and Firm Leverage," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 46(2), pages 653-684, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jlawec:y:2003:v:46:i:2:p:653-84
    DOI: 10.1086/377115
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/377115
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1086/377115?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gary S. Becker, 1981. "A Treatise on the Family," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number beck81-1, March.
    2. Bruce Johnson, W. & Magee, Robert P. & Nagarajan, Nandu J. & Newman, Harry A., 1985. "An analysis of the stock price reaction to sudden executive deaths : Implications for the managerial labor market," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(1-3), pages 151-174, April.
    3. Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1997. "A Survey of Corporate Governance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(2), pages 737-783, June.
    4. Jensen, Michael C, 1986. "Agency Costs of Free Cash Flow, Corporate Finance, and Takeovers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(2), pages 323-329, May.
    5. Hadlock, Charles J & Ryngaert, Michael & Thomas, Shawn, 2001. "Corporate Structure and Equity Offerings: Are There Benefits to Diversification?," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 74(4), pages 613-635, October.
    6. Toni M. Whited, 2001. "Is It Inefficient Investment that Causes the Diversification Discount?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(5), pages 1667-1691, October.
    7. David S. Scharfstein & Jeremy C. Stein, 2000. "The Dark Side of Internal Capital Markets: Divisional Rent‐Seeking and Inefficient Investment," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(6), pages 2537-2564, December.
    8. John R. Graham & Michael L. Lemmon & Jack G. Wolf, 2002. "Does Corporate Diversification Destroy Value?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(2), pages 695-720, April.
    9. DeAngelo, Harry & DeAngelo, Linda, 2000. "Controlling stockholders and the disciplinary role of corporate payout policy: a study of the Times Mirror Company," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 153-207, May.
    10. Sattar A. Mansi & David M. Reeb, 2002. "Corporate Diversification: What Gets Discounted?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(5), pages 2167-2183, October.
    11. Tufano, Peter, 1996. "Who Manages Risk? An Empirical Examination of Risk Management Practices in the Gold Mining Industry," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 51(4), pages 1097-1137, September.
    12. Ronald C. Anderson & David M. Reeb, 2003. "Founding-Family Ownership and Firm Performance: Evidence from the S&P 500," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(3), pages 1301-1327, June.
    13. Larry H. P. Lang & Mara Faccio & Leslie Young, 2001. "Dividends and Expropriation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(1), pages 54-78, March.
    14. Ronald C. Anderson & David M. Reeb, 2003. "Founding‐Family Ownership and Firm Performance: Evidence from the S&P 500," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(3), pages 1301-1328, June.
    15. Agrawal, Anup & Nagarajan, Nandu J, 1990. "Corporate Capital Structure, Agency Costs, and Ownership Control: The Case of All-Equity Firms," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 45(4), pages 1325-1331, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chansog Kim & Christos Pantzalis & Jung Chul Park, 2014. "Do Family Owners Use Firm Hedging Policy to Hedge Personal Undiversified Wealth Risk?," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 43(2), pages 415-444, June.
    2. Sumon Kumar Bhaumik & Andros Gregoriou, 2010. "‘Family’ Ownership, Tunnelling And Earnings Management: A Review Of The Literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(4), pages 705-730, September.
    3. Ma. Belén Lozano García & Alberto de Miguel Hidalgo & Diana Monserrat Ríos Rodríguez, 2013. "Responsible Diversification: Knowing Enough About Diversification To Do It Responsibly: Motives, Measures And Consequences," Annales Universitatis Apulensis Series Oeconomica, Faculty of Sciences, "1 Decembrie 1918" University, Alba Iulia, vol. 1(15), pages 1-19.
    4. Chalevas, Constantinos G., 2011. "The Effect of the Mandatory Adoption of Corporate Governance Mechanisms on Executive Compensation," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 138-174, June.
    5. Anderson, Ronald C. & Duru, Augustine & Reeb, David M., 2009. "Founders, heirs, and corporate opacity in the United States," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(2), pages 205-222, May.
    6. Piruna Polsiri & Kingkarn Sookhanaphibarn, 2009. "Corporate Distress Prediction Models Using Governance and Financial Variables: Evidence from Thai Listed Firms during the East Asian Economic Crisis," Journal of Economics and Management, College of Business, Feng Chia University, Taiwan, vol. 5(2), pages 273-304, July.
    7. Chen, Sheng-Syan & Chen, I-Ju, 2012. "Corporate governance and capital allocations of diversified firms," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 395-409.
    8. Mulyani, Evy & Singh, Harminder & Mishra, Sagarika, 2016. "Dividends, leverage, and family ownership in the emerging Indonesian market," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 16-29.
    9. Stefan Erdorf & Thomas Hartmann-Wendels & Nicolas Heinrichs & Michael Matz, 2013. "Corporate diversification and firm value: a survey of recent literature," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 27(2), pages 187-215, June.
    10. Glaser, Markus & Müller, Sebastian, 2006. "Der Diversification Discount in Deutschland: Existiert ein Bewertungsabschlag für diversifizierte Unternehmen?," Sonderforschungsbereich 504 Publications 06-13, Sonderforschungsbereich 504, Universität Mannheim;Sonderforschungsbereich 504, University of Mannheim.
    11. Sheng-Syan Chen & I-Ju Chen, 2011. "Inefficient Investment and the Diversification Discount: Evidence from Corporate Asset Purchases," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(7-8), pages 887-914, September.
    12. Patrice Charlier & Céline Duboys, 2011. "Gouvernance familiale et politique de distribution aux actionnaires," Revue Finance Contrôle Stratégie, revues.org, vol. 14(1), pages 5-31., March.
    13. Adel Bino & Elisabeta Pana, 2011. "Firm value and investment policy around stock for stock mergers," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 37(2), pages 207-221, August.
    14. Aziz Jaafar & Lynn Hodgkinson & Mao-Feng Kao, 2019. "Ownership Structure, Board of Directors and Firm Performance: Evidence from Taiwan," Working Papers 19011, Bangor Business School, Prifysgol Bangor University (Cymru / Wales).
    15. Gönül Çolak, 2010. "Diversification, Refocusing and Firm Value," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 16(3), pages 422-448, June.
    16. Khosa,Amrinder & Ahmed,Kamran & Henry,Darren, 2019. "Ownership Structure, Related Party Transactions, and Firm Valuation," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781108492195.
    17. Kim, Sehoon, 2020. "Disappearing Discounts: Hedge Fund Activism in Conglomerates," MPRA Paper 100876, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Jandik, Tomas & Makjija, Anil K., 2004. "Can Diversification Create Value? Evidence from the Electric Utility Industry," Working Paper Series 2005-7, Ohio State University, Charles A. Dice Center for Research in Financial Economics.
    19. Hanazaki, Masaharu & 花崎, 正晴 & ハナザキ, マサハル & Liu, Qun & 劉, 群, 2003. "The Asian Crisis and Corporate Governance: Ownership Structure, Debt Financing, and Corporate Diversification," CEI Working Paper Series 2003-18, Center for Economic Institutions, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    20. Datta, Sudip & D'Mello, Ranjan & Iskandar-Datta, Mai, 2009. "Executive compensation and internal capital market efficiency," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 242-258, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ucp:jlawec:y:2003:v:46:i:2:p:653-84. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Journals Division (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JLE .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.