Publications

Find at Harvard

October 2010
Background Note

Family Corporate Governance: A Brief Literature Review

By: Lena G. Goldberg and David Kiron

This note discusses competing theories of governance in family owned firms and focuses on agency theory, stewardship theory, and the sociological concept of embeddedness. View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Managerial Roles; Family Ownership; Theory

09 Mar 2021
News

A Family Business at a Crossroads: Scaling and Succession

November 2020
Case

The 1,000-Year Plan: Lee Kum Kee and Sustaining a Family Culture

By: Lauren Cohen, Dawn H. Lau and Billy Chan

The Lee family, whose Hong Kong-based Lee Kum Kee company has established itself as a legend within the Chinese and Asian sauce world, sets out to create a daring new vision of what family legacy means. With the family business having been established in 1888, and by... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Mission and Purpose; Values and Beliefs; Business and Community Relations; Organizational Structure; Strategic Planning

September 2024
Supplement

Carrie Wang: Choosing Between the Family Firm and the Family Spirit: Spreadsheet Supplement

By: Lauren Cohen, Fei Wu and Sophia Pan

19 Nov 2014
News

Helping family businesses succeed and thrive

For more than 25 years, Philippe de Gaspé Beaubien (MBA 1954) and his family foundation have been enabling others learn how to manage successful family-run businesses. (Published November 2014) View Details

September 2011 (Revised November 2011)
Case

CP Group: Balancing the Needs of a Family Business with the Needs of a Family of Businesses

By: William C. Kirby and Tracy Yuen Manty

As a second generation business leader, Chairman Dhanin Chearavanont took over the family agribusiness company and built it to become a major diversified conglomerate in Thailand and expanded the business in SE Asia and China. While growing the business, he and his... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Plant-Based Agribusiness; Family Business; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Conglomerates; Family Ownership; Growth and Development; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Thailand; China; Southeast Asia

01 Feb 1999
News

All in the Family

you're the president, but our differences about how to run it are getting bigger, and our relationship is deteriorating quickly. I think the best thing is for me to leave." The elder Pellegrin, 58 years old,... View Details

Keywords: Marguerite Rigoglioso

2 PM – 3 PM EST, 02 Dec 2015
Webinars: Trending@HBS

Managing Family Strife: Market Baskets Lessons about Buyouts

You'd have to have been sleeping under a rock to miss the family war and media frenzy over Market Basket, the Boston-based, family-owned supermarket chain. The confrontation between two cousins (both named Arthur Demoulas) over control of the company was finally... View Details

June 2024
Case

PRAN-RFL Group: A Diversified Family Business

By: Christina R. Wing, Paul Wuensche and Brittany L. Logan

The PRAN-RFL Group was founded in 1980 by Amjad Khan Chowdhury, and grew to become one of the largest conglomerates in Bangladesh in 2023. Throughout the years, Amjad established fast food chains, production manufacturing lines, retail stores, and his own foundation... View Details

Keywords: Business Conglomerates; Family Business; Management Succession; Family Ownership; Retirement; Bangladesh

Fast Answer

Patent terminology: Patent Family

What is a patent family and how it can be used in patent search? A patent family is a collection of patent applications covering the same or similar technical content. The... View Details

08 May 2015
News

Continuing a family legacy

After gaining experience in a variety of industries, Angela A. Chao (AB 1995, MBA 2001) joined the family shipping business, where she is growing the business in new ways. (Published May 2015) View Details

Article

Informal Family Insurance and the Design of the Welfare State

By: Rafael Di Tella and Robert MacCulloch

We study unemployment benefit provision when the family also provides social insurance. In the benchmark case, more generous State transfers crowd out family risk-sharing one-for-one. An extension gives the State an advantage in enforcing transfers through taxes... View Details

Keywords: Insurance; Design; Welfare

Find at Harvard

Read Now

08 Jun 2015
News

Leading a family business

After Phyllis Papani Godwin (HRPBA 1949) inherited the family electrical supply business, she quickly learned the ropes, developed a collaborative leadership style, and expanded the company into 28... View Details

25 Apr 2016
Blog Post

Attending HBS to Grow the Family Business

As a kid, Lauren Derse (MBA 2010) hit the family business jackpot. Her mom was the CEO and founder of—you guessed it—a chain of toy store franchises. After growing up in small town Massachusetts (and... View Details

Research Summary

Family, Inc. Historical Development of German and US Family Firm

Family-owned businesses are the most common form of business organization worldwide. This project deals with the main characteristics of closely-held ownership and more precisely families as majority owners. It strives for an international comparison of family firms... View Details

December 2001 (Revised March 2003)
Case

Ben Fiorentino: Selling the Family Business

The caseescribes the challenges Ben Fiorentino, the second-generation head of a family-run equipment business, must deal with as he decides whether and how to sell the business. The business is encountering classic problems that confront family-owned firms: The third... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Negotiation; Business Exit or Shutdown; Management Teams; Agency Theory

January 2018 (Revised February 2018)
Case

McKinnon Family Financial Planning

By: V.G. Narayanan and Shawn O'Brien