This paper contributes to the literature on family firms in two ways. First, it focuses on a largely neglected but important issue of family firms’ investment decisions. Second, it uses a novel and rich data set about Italian private firms; this complements the literature, which typically focuses on publicly traded companies, in an important way, given that most family firms are private and relatively little information is available on their behaviour. Our results suggest that family firms’ investments are significantly more sensitive to uncertainty than nonfamily firms. We find evidence that the greater sensitivity to uncertainty is basically due to the greater opacity of family firms and to their higher risk aversion, rather than to the degree of sunk fixed capital as is typical in the literature on investment decisions.
Titolo: | Family firms’ investments, uncertainty and opacity |
Autore/i: | M. Bianco; BONTEMPI, MARIA ELENA; GOLINELLI, ROBERTO; G. Parigi |
Autore/i Unibo: | |
Anno: | 2013 |
Rivista: | |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI): | http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11187-012-9414-3 |
Abstract: | This paper contributes to the literature on family firms in two ways. First, it focuses on a largely neglected but important issue of family firms’ investment decisions. Second, it uses a novel and rich data set about Italian private firms; this complements the literature, which typically focuses on publicly traded companies, in an important way, given that most family firms are private and relatively little information is available on their behaviour. Our results suggest that family firms’ investments are significantly more sensitive to uncertainty than nonfamily firms. We find evidence that the greater sensitivity to uncertainty is basically due to the greater opacity of family firms and to their higher risk aversion, rather than to the degree of sunk fixed capital as is typical in the literature on investment decisions. |
Data prodotto definitivo in UGOV: | 2013-05-15 02:03:04 |
Appare nelle tipologie: | 1.01 Articolo in rivista |