IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cpr/ceprdp/5786.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Performance of Italian Family Firms

Author

Listed:
  • Favero, Carlo A.
  • Panunzi, Fausto
  • Giglio, Stefano
  • Honorati, Maddalena

Abstract

In this paper, we study the performance of Italian listed family firms in the period 1998-2003. We measure their performance by using both accounting and market data. We first study the relative performance of family firms compared to widely held firms. Then we investigate whether performance is affected by the type of family firm (i.e., whether the CEO is a member of the family or is an outsider). We find that the data and the methodology used to measure performance strongly affect the results. When performance is measured by accounting data (ROA), using a static model, we find evidence in favour of a superior performance of family firms. Such evidence is not confirmed by the application of the same model to market measures of performance. However, we report statistical evidence that the correct econometric specification for market data is a dynamic model. The results of estimation of the dynamic model for the market measures of performance are more consistent with those based on the static model for the accounting measures of performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Favero, Carlo A. & Panunzi, Fausto & Giglio, Stefano & Honorati, Maddalena, 2006. "The Performance of Italian Family Firms," CEPR Discussion Papers 5786, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:5786
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cepr.org/publications/DP5786
    Download Restriction: CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org
    ---><---

    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. Randall Morck & David Stangeland & Bernard Yeung, 2000. "Inherited Wealth, Corporate Control, and Economic Growth The Canadian Disease?," NBER Chapters, in: Concentrated Corporate Ownership, pages 319-372, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez‐De‐Silanes & Andrei Shleifer, 1999. "Corporate Ownership Around the World," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 54(2), pages 471-517, April.
    3. Morck, Randall K. (ed.), 2000. "Concentrated Corporate Ownership," National Bureau of Economic Research Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226536781, December.
    4. Randall K. Morck & David A. Strangeland & Bernard Yeung, 1998. "Inherited Wealth, Corporate Control and Economic Growth," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 209, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    5. Randall K. Morck, 2000. "Concentrated Corporate Ownership," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number morc00-1, March.
    6. Faccio, Mara & Lang, Larry H. P., 2002. "The ultimate ownership of Western European corporations," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(3), pages 365-395, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Navaretti, Giorgio Barba & Faini, Riccardo & Tucci, Alessandra, 2008. "Does family control affect trade performance?: evidence for Italian firms," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 28509, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    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. Isakov, Dušan & Weisskopf, Jean-Philippe, 2015. "Pay-out policies in founding family firms," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 330-344.
    4. Leandro D’Aurizio & Livio Romano, 2011. "Family Firms and the Great Recession: Out of Sight, Out of Mind?," Economics Working Papers ECO2011/28, European University Institute.
    5. Ilias Makris & Vasileios Giannopoulos & Efi Cheila, 2022. "Associating Company-Specific Characteristics with Ownership Structure and Performance: An Analysis of Publicly Listed Firms from Selected Countries in the Eurozone during the 2008 Financial Crisis and," Businesses, MDPI, vol. 2(4), pages 1-13, October.
    6. repec:cuf:journl:y:2013:v:14:i:3:navaretti:faini:tucci is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Isakov, Dusan & Weisskopf, Jean-Philippe, 2013. "Do not wake sleeping dogs: Pay-out policies in founding family firms," FSES Working Papers 443, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, University of Freiburg/Fribourg Switzerland.
    8. Erbetta, Fabrizio & Menozzi, Anna & Corbetta, Guido & Fraquelli, Giovanni, 2013. "Assessing family firm performance using frontier analysis techniques: Evidence from Italian manufacturing industries," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 4(2), pages 106-117.
    9. Giorgia Giovannetti & Giorgio Ricchiuti & Margherita Velucchi, 2013. "Heterogeneity in managerial strategies and internationalization of firms: the case of Italy," ECONOMIA E POLITICA INDUSTRIALE, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2013(2), pages 51-66.
    10. Bianco, Madga & Golinelli, Roberto & Parigi, Giuseppe, 2009. "Family firms and investments," MPRA Paper 19247, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Garcia-Castro, Roberto & Aguilera, Ruth V., 2014. "Family involvement in business and financial performance: A set-theoretic cross-national inquiry," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 85-96.
    12. Giorgio Barba Navaretti & Matteo Bugamelli & Riccardo Cristadoro & Daniela Maggioni, 2012. "Are firms exporting to China and India different from other exporters?," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 112, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    13. Maria Rosaria Carillo & Vincenzo Lombardo & Alberto Zazzaro, 2013. "Family Firm Connections and Entrepreneurial Human Capital in the Process of Development," Mo.Fi.R. Working Papers 89, Money and Finance Research group (Mo.Fi.R.) - Univ. Politecnica Marche - Dept. Economic and Social Sciences.
    14. Achleitner, Ann-Kristin & Braun, Reiner & Kaserer, Christoph & Jarchow, Svenja & Keppler, Henry & Szewczyk, Justin, 2019. "Börsennotierte Familienunternehmen in Deutschland: Bedeutung, Merkmale, Performance," Studien, Stiftung Familienunternehmen / Foundation for Family Businesses, number 250033, June.

    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. Heitor Almeida & Sang Yong Park & Marti Subrahmanyam & Daniel Wolfenzon, 2009. "The Structure and Formation of Business Groups: Evidence from Korean Chaebols," NBER Working Papers 14983, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Randall Morck, 2011. "Finance and Governance in Developing Economies," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 3(1), pages 375-406, December.
    3. Evžen Kočenda & Jan Hanousek, 2012. "State ownership and control in the Czech Republic," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 45(3), pages 157-191, August.
    4. Mike Burkart & Fausto Panunzi & Andrei Shleifer, 2003. "Family Firms," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(5), pages 2167-2201, October.
    5. Heitor Almeida & Daniel Wolfenzon, 2005. "A Theory of Pyramidal Ownership and Family Business Groups," NBER Working Papers 11368, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Parsley, David & Faccio, Mara, 2006. "Sudden Deaths: Taking Stock of Political Connections," CEPR Discussion Papers 5460, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. Fogel, Kathy & Morck, Randall & Yeung, Bernard, 2008. "Big business stability and economic growth: Is what's good for General Motors good for America?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 83-108, July.
    8. Faccio, Mara & Parsley, David C., 2009. "Sudden Deaths: Taking Stock of Geographic Ties," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 44(3), pages 683-718, June.
    9. Oriana Bandiera & Renata Lemos & Andrea Prat & Raffaella Sadun, 2018. "Managing the Family Firm: Evidence from CEOs at Work," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 31(5), pages 1605-1653.
    10. Attiya Y. Javid & Robina Iqbal, 2010. "Corporate Governance in Pakistan : Corporate Valuation, Ownership and Financing," Governance Working Papers 22830, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    11. Kim, Euysung, 2006. "The impact of family ownership and capital structures on productivity performance of Korean manufacturing firms: Corporate governance and the "chaebol problem"," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 209-233, June.
    12. Chirinko, Robert S. & Schaller, Huntley, 2004. "A revealed preference approach to understanding corporate governance problems: Evidence from Canada," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(1), pages 181-206, October.
    13. Erbetta, Fabrizio & Menozzi, Anna & Corbetta, Guido & Fraquelli, Giovanni, 2013. "Assessing family firm performance using frontier analysis techniques: Evidence from Italian manufacturing industries," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 4(2), pages 106-117.
    14. Randall Morck, 2003. "Why Some Double Taxation Might Make Sense: The Special Case of Inter-corporate Dividends," NBER Working Papers 9651, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Jang, Hasung & Kang, Hyung-cheol & Park, Kyung Suh, 2005. "Determinants of Family Ownership: The Choice between Control and Performance," CEI Working Paper Series 2005-5, Center for Economic Institutions, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    16. Adhikari, Hari P. & Sutton, Ninon K., 2016. "All in the family: The effect of family ownership on acquisition performance," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 65-78.
    17. Randall Morck & Michael Percy & Gloria Tian & Bernard Yeung, 2005. "The Rise and Fall of the Widely Held Firm: A History of Corporate Ownership in Canada," NBER Chapters, in: A History of Corporate Governance around the World: Family Business Groups to Professional Managers, pages 65-148, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Bennedsen, Morten & Nielsen, Kasper & Pérez-González, Francisco & Wolfenzon, Daniel, 2005. "Inside the Family Firm," Working Papers 21-2005, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Economics.
    19. Michael R. King & Dan Segal, 2009. "The Long-Term Effects of Cross-Listing, Investor Recognition, and Ownership Structure on Valuation," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(6), pages 2393-2421, June.
    20. Hamadi, Malika & Heinen, Andréas, 2015. "Firm performance when ownership is very concentrated: Evidence from a semiparametric panel," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 172-194.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Family firms; Corporate performance; Management style;
    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

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:cpr:ceprdp:5786. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cepr.org .

    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.