Family firms have become a topic of the utmost interest both for academic researchers and policy makers. Researchers have started to investigate the distinctiveness of family firms, their functioning and efficiency outcomes. Policy makers have been reacting to the problems of economic development arising from the domination of family-owned and family-controlled firms in many economies. This book provides an analytical study of control, ownership and succession in family firms. It includes nine chapters written by scholars from different countries, namely the United States of America, Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Poland and Nigeria.

“To better grasp the relationship between economic growth, firm behaviour, and policy, we need a handle on the complexity of family firms. This book is therefore to be welcomed. Its rigorous and strongly empirical essays add valuable knowledge to our understanding of the most distinctive aspects of family firms: their efficiency, funding and control. Admirably it achieves this by integrating research from both economics and management.”

Prof. Wim Naudé, WIDER, United Nations University, Helsinki – Finland