Publications

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23 Jun 2010
Working Paper Summaries

The Role of Institutional Development in the Prevalence and Value of Family Firms

Keywords: by Raphael Amit, Yuan Ding, Belén Villalonga & Hua Zhang

September 12, 2022
Article

Merit or Inherit: How to Approach Succession in a Family Business

By: Josh Baron

One of the most critical questions facing family businesses is how to treat the next generation. They are clearly different from other employees, as current or potential owners of the company, whose wealth and reputation are on the line. On the flip side, most parents... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Family and Family Relationships; Management Succession

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November 1999 (Revised February 2002)
Case

Family Feud (A): Andersen v. Andersen

By: Ashish Nanda and Scot H. Landry

Traces the history and development of consulting within Andersen and the history of the schism between Arthur Andersen and Andersen Consulting. Ends with the two units seeking external arbitration of their dispute. View Details

Keywords: Organizational Design; Corporate Governance; Conflict and Resolution; Consulting Industry

December 26, 2018
Article

Why Family Businesses Need to Find the Right Level of Conflict

By: Josh Baron

Many families avoid conflict because it makes them uncomfortable. For families that own and manage businesses, this is a problem. Conflict avoidance leads people to avoid difficult–but necessary–conversations and decisions. Instead of avoiding conflict, the people who... View Details

Keywords: Management Skills; Conflict and Resolution; Family Business

November 2024
Technical Note

Is a Single-Family Office Right for You?

By: Christina R. Wing, George Jackoboice and Justin Huang

Twenty years ago, the term “family office” was used infrequently and often reserved for the most storied families such as the Rockefellers or the Kennedys. Now, “family office” is on the tip of the tongue of every investor, wealth manager, and company. However, the... View Details

Keywords: Family Office; Family Business

October 2024 (Revised January 2025)
Case

MDH Partners: Evolving a Family Legacy

By: Christina R. Wing and Sarah Mehta

This case is about succession planning for MDH Partners, an Atlanta-based industrial real estate investment firm founded in 2005. When Jeffrey Small, Jr. cofounded MDH Partners, he named the company in honor of his grandfather, Mark Durward (MD) Hodges, an early... View Details

Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Business Ventures; Ownership; Business Exit or Shutdown; Family Business; Management Succession; Personal Development and Career; Financial Services Industry; Real Estate Industry; United States; Georgia (state, US); Atlanta

December 2018 (Revised January 2019)
Case

Junson Capital: Building an Institutionalized Family Office

By: Christopher J. Malloy, Lauren H. Cohen, Hao Gao and Dawn H. Lau

2009
Chapter

On the Goals of Successful Family Companies

By: John A. Davis and Renato Tagiuri

Providing clear goals for a company and communicating them are among the most powerful means for guiding the behavior of the people in an organization. In this article, we explore the range of objectives or goals of family-owned and -managed companies and identify... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Interpersonal Communication; Goals and Objectives; Organizational Culture; Family Ownership

April 2000 (Revised July 2000)
Case

Family Feud (B): Andersen versus Andersen

By: Ashish Nanda

Arbitration proceedings have been initiated between Andersen Consulting and Arthur Andersen. The case details developments during 1999 and 2000, as the arbitration nears a decision. View Details

Keywords: Business Exit or Shutdown; Service Industry; Consulting Industry; United States

2021
Working Paper

Friends and Family Money: P2P Transfers and Financially Fragile Consumers

By: Tetyana Balyuk and Emily Williams

We assess the impact that real time money transfer technology has on consumer outcomes, particularly during periods of financial fragility. We do this by developing a new data set that documents use of Zelle—the most widely used P2P money transfer technology in the... View Details

Keywords: P2P Money Transfers; Real Time Payments; Fintech; Finance; Information Technology; Personal Finance; Financial Condition

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December 2024
Supplement

Trust and Family at Fuwei (B): Ethan Yang's Perspective

By: Letian Zhang, Wenjie Ma and Jiaqi Jin

20 May 2014
Research & Ideas

Managing the Family Business: Survival’s Secret Sauce

But long-term success-even for a family company-can be explained in a rather simple, straightforward way. Here are some high points to consider. Grow Every Generation In order to stay alive commercially as a family, you must grow your... View Details

27 Jan 2014
Research & Ideas

Family CEOs Spend Less Time at Work

the Strategy unit at Harvard Business School who studies the curious relationship between managerial incentives and motivation. “Family CEOs are a very interesting group” "Family CEOs are a very interesting... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

December 2022
Case

Signature Brands: Crafting Family Moments That Matter

By: Jose B. Alvarez and Annelena Lobb

2025
Working Paper

Tax Elasticities of Top Donors: Evidence from Family Foundations

By: Simon Essig Aberg

High net-worth donors who give through a family foundation or donor-advised fund constitute the fastest growing segment of charitable giving in the United States. Using a novel database of foundation tax filings, I document facts about top donors, estimate how they... View Details

Keywords: Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Taxation; Motivation and Incentives

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August 19, 2013
Article

Coddled Relatives Can Kill a Family Business

By: Josh Baron and Rob Lachenauer

Keywords: Family Business

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spring 1992
Article

On the Goals of Successful Family Companies

By: J. A. Davis and R. Tagiuri

Keywords: Family Business; Success

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December 2011
Exercise

What We Carry: Success, Failure, and Happiness in Family Systems

By: Timothy Butler

The purpose of this exercise is to enable participants to identify essential career and life themes. The core task of the exercise is to extract themes, images, metaphors and "dynamic tensions" from a list of exciting careers that have been selected from a larger... View Details

Keywords: Family and Family Relationships; Success; Failure; Happiness