Mixing family with business: A study of Thai business groups and the families behind them

• 成果类型: Article; Proceedings Paper
• 署名作者: Bertrand, Marianne; Johnson, Simon; Samphantharak, Krislert; Schoar, Antoinette
• 署名单位: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); University of Chicago; University of California System; University of California San Diego
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF FINANCIAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-405X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jfineco.2008.04.002
• 发表日期: 2008
• 页码: 466-498
• 关键词: CORPORATE GOVERNANCE; excess control; groups; families

摘要

How does the structure of the families behind business groups affect the group's organization, governance, and performance? We construct a unique dataset of family trees and business groups for 93 of the largest business families in Thailand. We find a strong positive association between family size and family involvement in the ownership and control of the family businesses. The founders' sons play a central role in both ownership and board membership, especially when the founder of the group is dead. Greater involvement by sons is also associated with lower firm-level performance, especially when the founder is dead. One hypothesis that emerges from our analysis is that part of the decay of family-run groups over time is due to the dilution of ownership and control across a set of equally powerful descendants of the founder, which creates a race to the bottom in tunneling resources out of the group firms. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.