阅读资料第五份
The Family Behind the Family Firm:
Evidence from Successions in Danish Firms*
Morten Bennedsen
Copenhagen Business School and CEBR
Kasper Nielsen
University of Copenhagen and CEBR
Daniel Wolfenzon
New York University and NBER
First draft March 15, 2004 – This draft February, 2005
Abstract
This paper uses a unique dataset from Denmark to examine the impact of owners’ family characteristics
(size, gender composition, divorce, etc) on the decision to appoint internal (family) or
external chief executive officers (CEOs). In contrast to common perceptions, we find that conditional
on observing family CEO transitions, within cohort (spouse, siblings) successions are at least
as prevalent as subsequent generation transitions. When assessing the impact of family characteristics
on subsequent generation CEO appointments, we find that the probability of observing a
family succession increases with the number of children, decreases with the ratio of female children,
and decreases with divorce, particularly when it is accompanied with a new marriage and a new
family. To show that these results are not spurious, we use instrumental variables. Overall, we find
that family dynamics play a significant role in firm decision-making even when families are not the
sole owner of these firms.