Family firms without able and willing family successors are frequently sold to non-family managers through management buy-outs (MBOs). Whether MBOs create value is thought to be dependent upon the ability to reduce owner–manager agency costs. In this article we examine the agency costs of MBOs...

In this article we compare the governance choices of family and non-family firms regarding their subcontracting tendencies. Based on transaction cost theory, we argue that family firms are less likely to engage in subcontracting than non-family firms and that kinship ties, the extent to which a...

Most studies of succession in family firms concentrate on the succession event and/or on the periods immediately prior or subsequent to that event. We wished to look back at a much longer time period in order to more fully characterize the governance philosophies both before and after succession...