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  • February 2004 (Revised April 2004)
  • Exercise

Family Business Ownership Goals Worksheet

By: John A. Davis
Family members who either own a business or who could inherit ownership in a business are helped to clarify how they would like to have the business owned in the future. View Details
Keywords: Family Business; Family Ownership; Decision Making
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  • August 2019 (Revised March 2022)
  • Case

Family Matters: Governance at the Zamil Group

By: Christina R. Wing, Suraj Srinivasan and Esel Çekin
This case focuses on a large Saudi Arabian industrial conglomerate and family business Zamil Group’s corporate and family governance journey. The 12 sons of the founder led and grew the group successfully after taking over from their father in 1961. The secret to their... View Details
Keywords: Middle East; Family Ownership; Family-owned Business; Saudi Arabia; Family Business; Governance; Organizational Structure; Values and Beliefs; Steel Industry; Industrial Products Industry; Middle East; Saudi Arabia; Bahrain
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  • 23 Nov 2010
  • News

Resolve an Ownership Dispute in a Family Business

  • August 2019 (Revised July 2023)
  • Course Overview Note

Demystifying the Family Enterprise

By: Christina R. Wing and Madeline Keulen
90% of the GDP in the world is created through family-owned businesses. Family businesses are frequently thought to be exclusively mom-and-pop, small businesses. Most fail to realize that Walmart, Fidelity, Cargill, Koch Industries, and Ford, to name a few, are all... View Details
Keywords: Family Office; Family Business; Family Ownership
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  • September 20, 2016
  • Article

The 5 Models of Family Business Ownership

By: Josh Baron and Rob Lachenauer
Choosing one is among your most important decisions. View Details
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  • April 2025
  • Article

Corporate Ownership and ESG Performance

By: Belen Villalonga, Peter Tufano and Boya Wang
Using a sample of 3083 firms from 62 countries over 18 years, we analyze how the structure and identity of firms' material owners influence their Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance. We find that firms with founding families or other individual... View Details
Keywords: ESG; CSR; Family Firms; Social Responsibility; Environment; Sustainability; Ownership; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Corporate Governance; Environmental Sustainability
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  • October 2022
  • Case

An Heir with No Spare: The Deitch Family Office

By: Lauren Cohen and Grace Headinger
Joe and Matt Deitch, father and son, knew it was time to start their own family office. Matthew had recently joined his father at the family’s three enterprises, and they both realized that their family’s needs had grown increasingly complex over the years. In search... View Details
Keywords: Family Office; Philanthropy; Charitable Giving; Family; Family Business; Talent and Talent Management; Entrepreneurship; Governance; Values and Beliefs; Job Search; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Family Ownership; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Family and Family Relationships; Financial Services Industry; Real Estate Industry; Technology Industry; United States; Massachusetts; Boston; Florida; Miami
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  • April 2023
  • Case

Burning the Sails to Save the Ship: The Pilati Family Dilemma

By: Lauren Cohen, Hao Gao, Jiawei Ye and Grace Headinger
Octavian Graf Pilati, rising generation member of an Austrian princely family, prepared to sell the palace his family had held for over three hundred years. In recent years, the Pilati family lands had been leveraged as loan collateral for an international venture that... View Details
Keywords: Family Office; Family; Plant-Based Agribusiness; Agribusiness; Family Business; Property; Identity; Culture; Ethics; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Governance; Crisis Management; Family and Family Relationships; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Real Estate Industry; Austria
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  • Research Summary

Family Business Management

John Davis is developing cases and other course materials on family business management for the Executive Education program Families in Business: From Generation to Generation, Families in Business/China, the Owner/President Management... View Details
  • March 2013
  • Article

The Unintended Consequences of Ownership Transfer Planning

By: Josh Baron and Marion McCollom Hampton
The article discusses the challenges of passing down family businesses across generations, highlighting complexities in executive succession and estate planning. It emphasizes how emotional factors, complicated family dynamics, and unintended consequences influence... View Details
Keywords: Estate Planning; Family Business; Family and Family Relationships; Management Succession; Family Ownership; Manufacturing Industry; Financial Services Industry; Education Industry; Fashion Industry
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  • April 2025
  • Case

Pouring Oil on Troubled Waters: Vickers Oils and Resolving Family Conflict over Generations

By: Lauren Cohen, Octavian Graf Pilati and Sophia Pan
Will Vickers, a seventh-generation (G7) member of the Vickers Family, grappled with a pressing challenge: how to re-integrate family members into the firm to recover lost talent. His father, Peter Vickers, was the lone leader of the Vickers Oils – despite having... View Details
Keywords: Leadership; Family; Relationships; Shareholder; Conflict; Involvement; Family Office; Family Firms; Diversification; Family Business; Business Growth and Maturation; Experience and Expertise; Retention; Leadership Development; Business or Company Management; Management Succession; Organizational Structure; Family Ownership; Family and Family Relationships; Consumer Products Industry; United Kingdom
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  • Research Summary

Family Business Governance

Davis's other current work explores family, business, and ownership governance in the family business system. A book on this topic is in process. Included in this body of work is a large-scale survey project on corporate governance of Brazilian family companies and... View Details
  • Research Summary

Family Business Dynastic Success

Davis is also completing a several year study of successful family business dynasties, examining the management, ownership and family practices that help to perpetuate successful businesses and families. He is developing a book for Harvard University Press on this... View Details
  • January–February 2021
  • Article

Build a Family Business That Lasts

By: Josh Baron and Rob Lachenauer
Judging from how they’re portrayed in the media, it would be easy to dismiss family businesses as hotbeds of power-playing, backstabbing, and favor-currying, ultimately destined to fail; think of the Murdochs and News Corp, or the Redstones and National Amusements, to... View Details
Keywords: Family Business; Success; Ownership Type; Governing and Advisory Boards; Management Succession
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  • Fast Answer

Family Offices and Family Trusts

Factset because results were much smaller than others as 6/29/15 You can use Factset using Ownership criteria to locate contacts at Family Offices: Click on Screening tab Select Holder Select... View Details
  • 28 May 2007
  • Research & Ideas

How Property Ownership Changes Your World View

"a natural experiment," about 1,800 landless families (organized by a Catholic priest) occupied the area in 1981, believing it was owned by the state. In fact, it was made up of privately held tracts of land belonging to 13... View Details
Keywords: by Julia Hanna
  • 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

  • July 1999 (Revised July 2007)
  • Background Note

Preparing Family Business Cases

By: John A. Davis
Advises students on how to prepare and discuss a family business case. View Details
Keywords: Family Business; Business Education; Cases; Family Ownership; Research
Related
  • Program

Families in Business

foundations. All three types of businesses will benefit from this program. Details Address the complex dynamics of a family business Manage expectations for the family's involvement with the business Develop plans for onboarding the... View Details
  • December 2018
  • Case

Corporate Transformation at Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany

By: Joseph B. Fuller, Amy C. Edmondson, Daniela Beyersdorfer and Tonia Labruyere
When Stefan Oschmann became CEO and chairman of the executive board of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, in 2016, the company had started its transformation from a mid-tier traditional German industry player to a global modern science and technology player. The... View Details
Keywords: Corporate Governance With Family Ownership; Transformation; Change Management; Restructuring; Corporate Governance; Family Ownership
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