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Current research in corporate governance focuses primarily upon minimization of agency costs in the shareholder-management relationship. In this dissertation, I examine a complimentary perspective based upon stewardship theory. The model developed herein leverages past research on socioemotional wealth to identify CEO attributes associated with stewardship behavior. I examine whether these attributes lead to positive firm performance. Moreover, I examine how family ownership and board of director characteristics influences the CEO stewardship – firm performance relationship. A 3-year unbalanced panel dataset using 268 S&P 1500 firms is analyzed using generalized least squares regression. All covariates lag the dependent variable by 1-year; constructs are included to control for popular agency prescriptions used to monitor, control, and incentivize executives. I find no relationship between the hypothesized constructs related to CEO stewardship (board memberships, organizational identity, and board tenure) and firm performance (Tobin’s Q). However, results reveal family ownership positively moderates the relationship between the quantity of CEO board memberships and firm performance. Additionally, the presence of affiliated directors and community influential directors positively moderates the CEO board memberships-firm performance relationship. The presence of community influential directors also positively moderates the relationship between CEO organizational identity and firm performance. Results from this dissertation provide moderate support for stewardship theory as a compliment to agency theory in corporate governance literature. There is evidence that family ownership and board of director attributes strengthen the relationship between those CEO stewardship constructs and firm performance. However, lack of a direct relationship between the CEO stewardship constructs and firm performance suggest a need more fine-grained constructs that measure stewardship. A substantial amount of research exists in corporate governance using the principal-agent model. The research herein extends this research by using stewardship theory to compliment the dominant agency model. I hope this research encourages scholars to take an integrative approach by (1) taking a renewed look at alternate theories of corporate governance such as stewardship theory, and (2) continue work that focuses upon firm performance maximization through CEO stewardship as well as agency loss mitigation through monitoring and control of the CEO.

<p>Sammanfattning</p><p>Denna magister uppsats undersöker huruvida ledarskap, ägarstruktur och kontroll påverkar svenska familjeföretags investerings prestation på marknaden. I undersökningen har 90 svenska företag analyserats inom en 15 års period (1990-2005).</p><p>Ledarskap har delats upp i tre olika strukturer, den första strukturen står för grundar ledarskap. Regressionsanalysen i denna uppsats visade att en grundare har en positiv påverkan på företagets investerings prestation då grundaren agerade som Verkställande Direktör (VD), Styrelseordförande (SO) eller båda. Detta kan förklaras utifrån teorier som gör tydligt att en grundare äger entreprenörskaps anda och utmärkande kunskaper inom området ifråga. Resultatet för den andra strukturen, ättlings ledarskap visade att då ättlingar till grunderaren verkade som antingen VD, SO eller båda i företaget förekom en negativ påverkan på företagets finansiella prestation. Detta kan förklaras utifrån teorier som menar att en ättling inte har samma kunskap eller ambitioner som grundaren till företaget. Ättlingar har oftast ärvt högre poster inom företagen på grund av sina familjerelationer till grundaren snarare än på grund av sina kunskaper inom området. Den tredje ledarskapsstrukturen är externa ledare. Externa ledare är antingen en VD, SO eller båda som har blivit inhyrda till företaget av ägarfamiljen. Regressionsanalysen visade ett insignifikant resultat.</p><p>När resultaten för ägarstruktur och andel röster av ägare analyserades i både företag med röstdifferensiering och utan röstdifferensiering visade det sig att när grundaren agerade som VD, SO eller båda i företag utan röstdifferensiering förekom ingen minoritets expropriation eller principal-agent konflikter inom företaget, vilket betyder att företagets finansiella prestation påverkades positivt. Liknande resultat hittades även för företag med röstdifferensiering som hade externa ledare i sin ledning.</p>

Most firms are using optimal combination of equity and debt so as to maximize firms value and the wealth of the shareholders. To achieve all these, firms should be aware of the factors that influence the capital structure decisions. Previous empirical studies attempted to explain what determines the choice of capital structure in firms. The focus was on firms in general without categorizing family firms and non-family firms. The primary objective of this study is to examine what determines the capital structure of family firms in OECD countries. Amadeus database was used to obtain the data needed for the statistical analysis. Measures for firm-specific characteristics were calculated based on the previous stud-ies. The study was conducted over a period of 9 years from 2005-2013. Dataset com-prised of 95 family firms resulting in 850 observations. The results from the study indicate that the capital structure for family firms in OECD countries is influenced by profitability, asset tangibility, growth, size, debt tax shield , non-debt tax shield and liquidity. Both pecking-order theory and trade-off theory explain the capital structure of family firms.

Bakgrund: Företag har en stark påverkan på globala samhällsbeteenden och attityder. Ett företags ekonomiska styrkor och de val företaget gör har en stor inverkan på arbetsförhållanden, miljö, ekonomi och samhällen de verkar inom. Följaktligen är företagens sociala ansvar ett viktigt inslag i den sociala och miljömässiga utvecklingen. I och med att familjeföretag är den mest dominerande företagsformen i världen blir deras insatser betydelsefulla för miljön och samhället. Forskningsfråga: Varför väljer små respektive medelstora svenska familjeföretag att arbeta med CSR?   Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att identifiera olika CSR-arbeten som små respektive medelstora svenska familjeföretag arbetar med och utifrån det, undersöka varför dessa familjeföretag använder sig av CSR. Fokus ligger på att studera motiven till deras val att använda sig av CSR.   Metod: Denna studie har genomförts genom en komparativ flerfallstudie. Fyra små och medelstora svenska familjeföretag har varit grund till empirin. Empirin har till största del bestått av intervjuer men intervjuer har kompletterats med material från årsredovisning, lokaltidningar och hemsidor. Slutsats: Studiens resultat visar att de undersökta familjeföretagen arbetar med bland annat sponsring, välgörenhet, användning av miljöprodukter osv. Dessa familjeföretag har flera olika motiv till varför de arbetar med CSR.  De mest betydande motiven är att allmänheten förväntar sig att familjeföretag ska ta sitt ansvar gentemot samhället. Dessutom sätter myndigheter vissa krav som företag blir tvungna att följa för att få fortsätta vara verksamma. Familjeföretag arbetar med CSR för att de vill få något tillbaka från samhället i form av lojalitet eller marknadsandelar. Familjeföretagen vill att deras medarbetare ska vara lojala mot företagen genom att medarbetarna känner sig stolta att deras arbete bidrar till någonting bra i samhället. familjeföretagen arbetar med CSR för att stärka sin identitet, sitt rykte och sin image. Nyckelord: Familjeföretag, Corporate Social Responsibility, samhällsansvar / Background: Companies have a strong impact on global social behaviors and attitudes. The economic strengths and the choice of enterprises have a great impact on working conditions, environment, economy and the communities in which they operate. Consequently, Corporate Social Responsibility is an important component of social and environmental development. As family businesses are the most dominant forms of enterprises in the world, their efforts are therefore important for both environment and society. Research question: Why do small and medium-sized Swedish family businesses choose to work with CSR? Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify the various CSR activities in Sweden that small and medium-sized family businesses work with and the reason these family businesses make use of CSR. The focus is on studying the reasons for their choices of implementing CSR based on the first survey activities. Method: This study has been carried out through a comparative multi-case study. Four small and medium-sized Swedish family businesses form the basis of empirical data. The empirical data has largely consisted of interviews, supplemented with material from annual reports, local newspapers and websites.   Conclusion: The study results show that the examined family businesses work with sponsorship, charity, use of green products, etc. These family businesses have different reasons for why they work with CSR. One of the most important motives is that the public expects the family businesses to take their responsibility towards society, since authorities put certain requirements that companies will have to follow in order to continue to operate. Furthermore family businesses are working with CSR because they want to get something back from society in the form of loyalty or market shares. Family businesses want their employees to be loyal to the business by making employees feel proud that their work contributes to something good in society. Family businesses are working with CSR to strengthen their identity, reputation and image. Keywords: Family business, family firms, Corporate Social Responsibility

Background: Today’s business environment is characterized by high competitiveness and fast-changing markets. Moreover, useful knowledge and expertise cannot only be found within a company but also outside the organizational boundaries. Therefore, a shift from closed and internal R&amp;D processes to open and collaborative innovations with external sources can be noted in order to stay competitive.   Purpose: The concept of open innovation is well researched by various scholars in the context of large organizations and SMEs. However, the link to family firms is often missing and under researched. Resulting of the importance of the “how” component in family firm research, it is interesting to see how family firms actually implement the concept of open innovation and how it is influenced by unique family firm characteristics. Therefore, this study sheds light on how the family involvement affects the implementation of open innovation.   Method: We want to contribute to the theory with an exploratory research design and a multiple case-study method of eight selected family firms. Through semi-structured interviews with four family managers and four non-family managers, we gained insights from the organizational level concerning their open innovation strategy and implementation process. We used a cross-case analysis to compare the cases and indicate similarities and differences in order to draw our conclusions.   Conclusion: In general, the owning family is significantly important and influential for the open innovation strategy. First, family firms with family CEOs used open innovation as a response to internal drivers, however with non-family CEOs in charge internal and external forces are the drivers for an open innovation strategy. Second, families that are engaged in daily operations, execute an informal implementation process with loose communication practices, whereas family firms with an external CEO apply a formal implementation process. Additionally to this, we point out two managerial implications: open innovation needs to be embedded in the organizational culture and managers need to lead by example when implementing the concept.

Este trabalho tem como objetivo pesquisar os processos não estruturados que suportam a formação de empreendedores. A literatura contemporânea sobre administração e gestão dá a conhecer que crises de continuidade nas organizações seriam minimizadas se essas contassem com maior espírito empreendedor em suas lideranças e equipes. Subentende-se, então, que as organizações deveriam formar empreendedores, tarefa de alta complexidade, que demanda conceituação e ambiente interno para ser realizada. Uma das conceituações possíveis é considerar o empreendedorismo como resultante de um conjunto de competências, que, por definição, são passíveis de serem adquiridas. A teoria da cognição tem fornecido novas abordagens para o entendimento de como competências individuais e conhecimento são absorvidos por pessoas em formação. Aplicada ao tema do empreendedorismo, a teoria da cognição também explica como os empreendedores agem e quais são os modelos mentais (crenças e aprendizados) que dão suporte à sua ação. Uma amostra de cinco empresas familiares, em fase de sucessão de liderança foi selecionada para esta pesquisa, que é exploratória e qualitativa. O ambiente interno das organizações também foi avaliado, assim como as atitudes empreendedoras dos gestores destas organizações. Como contraponto, as características de personalidade de cada respondente também foram avaliadas por um instrumento projetivo. Segundo o resultado encontrado, pode-se afirmar que existe um processo de formação dos sucessores, usado de forma intuitiva pelos fundadores das organizações. Esse processo pode ser estruturado e repetido, sob certas condições, em organizações que desejem formar empreendedores internos. As características de personalidade exercem influência relativamente pequena, tanto na escolha dos sucessores como no processo de formação e no ambiente interno. / The objective is to research the unstructured processes which support the development of entrepreneurs. Contemporary literature on administration and management evidences that continuity crises in the organizations would be minimized if the latter could count on a higher entrepreneurial spirit in it leaderships and teams. It is hence inferred that organizations should work towards developing entrepreneurs, a highly complex task, which demands conceptualization and an internal environment in order to be carried out. One of the possible conceptualizations consists of considering entrepreneurship as a result of a set of skills. By definition, it is possible to acquire skills. Cognition theory has provided new approaches to the understanding of how knowledge and individual skills are assimilated by people in professional development. Applied to the notion of entrepreneurship, cognition theory also explains how the entrepreneurs act and which the mental models (beliefs and learning) that support their actions are. A sample of five family businesses, in the process of succession, has been selected for this research, which is exploratory and qualitative. The organizations’ internal environment has also been evaluated, along with the entrepreneurial attitudes of their managers. As a counterpoint, personality traits of each respondent have been analyzed by a projective method. As a result, it can be stated that there is a successors’ development process, employed intuitively by the organizations’ founders. This process can be structured and repeated, under certain conditions, in organizations willing to work on the development of internal entrepreneurs. Personality traits exert a relatively small influence, both in the choice of the successors and in the professional development process and internal environment.

As empresas familiares geralmente são conhecidas como empresas com propriedade detida e gestão exercida por pelo menos um membro de uma família empresária. Historicamente, essas empresas foram um objeto pouco estudado pela academia, apesar de sua importância. Esta dissertação tem como objetivo geral analisar os efeitos da propriedade familiar sobre os eventos de fusão e aquisição, por meio da investigação do efeito da propriedade familiar sobre a propensão a realizar fusões e aquisições, do efeito da participação percentual da família no capital sobre essa propensão e da comparação do retorno anormal acumulado de empresas familiares e não familiares após eventos de fusão e aquisição. Para testar as hipóteses de pesquisa foram utilizadas as técnicas estatísticas Probit e regressão linear simples. A população de estudo foi composta por companhias abertas brasileiras com registro em bolsa de valores. Com base nessa população construiu-se uma amostra de 216 empresas. O período de investigação incluiu os anos de 2007 a 2011. Os resultados encontrados confirmaram a hipótese de que as empresas familiares são menos propensas a realizar fusões e aquisições do que as empresas não familiares. Esses resultados são relevantes na medida em que confirmaram a única constatação equivalente disponível na literatura. Contudo, a participação percentual da família no capital não mostrou nenhuma relação com a propensão a realizar fusões e aquisições. Por fim, os resultados não mostraram evidências para suportar a hipótese de que o retorno anormal acumulado após eventos de fusão ou aquisição seja superior para as empresas familiares. / Family firms are generally known as companies whith property held and management exercised by at least one member of an entrepreneur family. Historically, these companies have been an object little studied by the academy, despite their importance. This work aims to analyze the effects of family ownership on merger and acquisition events, by investigating the effect of family ownership on the propensity to carry out mergers and acquisitions, the effect of family\'s percentual participation on this propensity and the comparison between the abnormal return of family firms and non-family firms after merger and acquisition events. To test the research hypotheses the statistics techniques Probit and simple linear regression were used. The study population was composed by Brazilian public companies listed in the stock exchange. Based on this population a sample of 216 companies was built. The research period included the years 2007 to 2011. The results confirmed the hypothesis that family firms are less likely to conduct mergers and acquisitions than non-family firms. These results are relevant to the extent that they confirmed the unique equivalent conclusion available in the literature. However, the family\'s percentual ownership had no relationship with the propensity to carry out mergers and acquisitions. Finally, the results showed no evidence that the cumulative abnormal return after merger or acquisition events is higher for family firms.

This research links together disparate literature on family and nonfamily firms, large and small firms, and risk for small firms. The literature is not coherent in one theme: whether family firms operate with greater risk relative to nonfamily firms. Yet the literature finds performance advantage to family firms without an explanation of why family firms on average generate better accounting returns and values relative to nonfamily firms other than for reduced agency costs translated into value. The first essay examines two measures of risk--debt ratio and idiosyncratic risk--of small publicly held family firms relative to nonfamily firms to investigate differences in financial risk between them. Using a unique hand-collected data set of small family and nonfamily firms, I analyze certain firm characteristics (family ownership, family member on the board, size, and dual class status) and find that family and nonfamily firms do not differ in their book-based debt ratios but do differ in their market-based debt ratios. Specifically, I find that family firms that tightly control voting rights through dual class status have higher debt ratios and hence have higher risk than nonfamily firms. Furthermore, I find a positive relation between idiosyncratic risk and family ownership, and I find as the percentage of family ownership increases idiosyncratic risk increases. The second essay utilizes the likelihood of incentive compensation presence and incentive compensation ratio of small publicly held family firms relative to nonfamily firms to investigate differences in CEO dividends and incentive compensation. The tools available for boards of directors to incentivize CEOs to act in accordance with diverse shareholder wishes, including risk-taking, investment selection, and the on-the-job consumption of resources, are stock options, stock grants, and cash bonuses. I argue that agency theory in practice is imperfect in incentive contracting. Specifically, CEO dividends and family ownership reduce the likelihood of the existence of an incentive compensation plan. I find in the presence of CEO dividends that family and nonfamily firms differ in their incentive compensation ratios and the likelihood of incentive compensation. In my sample, I find a significant negative relation between the CEO dividend income ratio and the incentive compensation ratio and between family ownership percentage and the incentive compensation ratio. Lastly, consistent with current literature, I find that growth opportunities positively influence both family and nonfamily firms' incentive compensation ratios.

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