Seminar #18 – April 21, 2021

Family agents

The presenter is Valentino D’Angelo, Academic Fellow at AIDAF-EY Chair in Strategic Management in Family Business in memory of Alberto Falck | Bocconi University (Italy). The paper is entitled “Family Agents“, and is co-authored by Mario Daniele Amore and Alessandro Minichilli.

date: April 21, 2021

time: 12:00-13:00 (CET)

location: Zoom (private event)

ABSTRACT – Several firms around the world are led by multiple CEOs. This observation has spurred a literature on the strategic implications of shared leadership. Our study investigates how co-CEOs affect corporate investment under different conditions of ownership and governance. We argue that, while family firms have more parsimonious investment policies than non-family firms, the presence of multiple CEOs raises overinvestment in family firms due to a potential divergence of personal agendas. Our analysis confirms that co-CEOs are conducive of excessive investment activities in family firms. Yet, we find that the positive effect of co-CEOs on family firms’ overinvestment is lower when the firm is subject to strong board monitoring, and higher when the co-CEOs belong to different family branches. Contrary to the view that family actors represent a homogeneous group with aligned interests and preferences, our study shows that the fragmentation of leadership among multiple actors may be costly for the family business.

Presenter

Valentino D'Angelo

Academic Fellow 

AIDAF-EY Chair in Strategic Management in Family Business in memory of Alberto Falck

Bocconi University