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Managing the Family Firm: Evidence from CEOs at Work

Author

Listed:
  • Oriana Bandiera

    (London School of Economics (LSE))

  • Andrea Prat

    (Columbia University)

  • Renata Lemos

    (Word Bank)

  • Raffaella Sadun

    (Harvard Business School, Strategy Unit)

Abstract

We present evidence on the labor supply of CEOs, and on whether family and professional CEOs differ on this dimension. We do so through a new survey instrument that allows us to codify CEOs' diaries in a detailed and comparable fashion, and to build a bottom-up measure of CEO labor supply. The comparison of 1,114 family and professional CEOs reveals that family CEOs work 9% fewer hours relative to professional CEOs. Hours worked are positively correlated with firm performance, and differences between family and non-family CEOs account for approximately 18% of the performance gap between family and non-family firms. We investigate the sources of the differences in CEO labor supply across governance types by exploiting firm and industry heterogeneity, and quasi-exogenous meteorological and sport events. The evidence suggests that family CEOs value-or can pursue-leisure activities relatively more than professional CEOs.

Suggested Citation

  • Oriana Bandiera & Andrea Prat & Renata Lemos & Raffaella Sadun, 2013. "Managing the Family Firm: Evidence from CEOs at Work," Harvard Business School Working Papers 14-044, Harvard Business School, revised Jun 2017.
    • Handle: RePEc:hbs:wpaper:14-044
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • M12 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Personnel Management; Executives; Executive Compensation
    • L2 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior
    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity

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