Using a matched-pairs methodology, I compare the impact of two different types of blockholders on the performance of the firms they control. The results reveal that independent family firms perform better than similar subsidiaries of Belgian financial holding companies over a 14-year period....

Using 1972 firm-year observations of Belgian subsidiaries, I examine whether the previously documented better performance of family firms can be attributed to the more efficient divestiture decision in these firms. Consistent with this hypothesis, the results reveal that families holding large...

This paper examines why companies decide to divest a subsidiary in a corporate environment characterised by concentrated ownership, using a unique panel dataset of nonlisted Belgian subsidiaries. The results of the binomial logit analyses are consistent with the idea that management will...