Family Management, Family Ownership and Downsizing: Evidence from S&P 500 Firms

Little is known about the relationship between family firms and their employees. This paper aims to close this gap. We distinguish between family management and family ownership as two dimensions of family firms and analyze their respective influence on downsizing. Our findings show that family management decreases the likelihood of downsizing, whereas the extent of family ownership decreases the likelihood of downsizing only with regard to deep job cuts (above 6%). We conclude that family managers have a strong long-term perspective, which is in line with both agency and stewardship theory. Yet, the idea that reputation concerns lead family owners to shy away from downsizing is only partially supported.Family firms, family management, family ownership, job cuts, downsizing; layoffs

Are CEOs in Family Firms Paid Like Bureaucrats? Evidence from Bayesian and Frequentist Analyses

The relationship between CEO pay and performance has been much analyzed in the management and economics literature. This study analyzes the structure of executive compensation in family and non-family firms. In line with predictions of agency theory, it is found that the share of base salary is higher with family-member CEOs than it is with nonfamily member CEOs. Furthermore, family-member CEOs receive a lower share of option pay. The paper’s findings have implications for family business research and the executive compensation literature. To make the findings robust, the statistical analysis is performed with both Bayesian and classical frequentist methods.Executive compensation, family firms, stock options, agency theory, Bayesian analysis

Solving monotone inclusions involving parallel sums of linearly composed maximally monotone operators

The aim of this article is to present two different primal-dual methods for solving structured monotone inclusions involving parallel sums of compositions of maximally monotone operators with linear bounded operators. By employing some elaborated splitting techniques, all of the operators occurring in the problem formulation are processed individually via forward or backward steps. The treatment of parallel sums of linearly composed maximally monotone operators is motivated by applications in imaging which involve first- and second-order total variation functionals, to which a special attention is given.Comment: 25 page

Battling Obesity with Resistant Starch

f everyone in the United States simply adopted the U.S. Dietary Guidelines of 2005 (http://www. cnpp.usda.gov/GAs2005Guidelines .htm), obesity would be on its way out. Exercising 30-90 minutes a day, eating at least half of our grains as whole grains, and eating four servings of fruits and five servings of vegetables \u27a day are simple prac­ tices that are advised because of their ability to improve energy bal­ ance, keeping us from gaining weight and helping us to lose weight if we need to

LONG-TERM ORIENTATION IN FAMILY AND NON-FAMILY FIRMS: A BAYESIAN ANALYSIS

A stronger long-term orientation is considered a competitive advantage of family firms relative to non-family firms. In this study, we use panel data of U.S. firms and analyze this proposition. Our findings are surprising. Only in when the family is involved in the management of the firm is the firm found to invest more in long-term projects relative to a non-family firm. We also find that investment in long-term projects in family firms is determined less by cash flow variations than for non-family firms. Managerial implications of our findings are discussed. Our hypotheses are tested using Bayesian methods.Family Firm, Long-term Orientation, Myopia, Bayesian Analysis, Agency Theory, Stewardship Theory, Investment Policy