We examine ownership dynamics in listed founding-family firms over the period 1996–2008. In order to enlarge the understanding of persistence of ownership influence, we analyze determinants of change in the light of family-firm heterogeneity. We detect ownership decreases and increases, alike....

Private equity is invested mostly in established firms, of which family businesses are the dominant form. Under the pecking order hypothesis, private equity is a finance of last resort. Tests of the pecking order and its assumptions have provided conflicting results. For family firms, the...