This paper investigates how family ownership, control and management affect firm investment performance. We use the identity of the CEO and the COB to establish under what management the firm is: founder, descendent or external management. The analysis shows that founder management has no effect on investment performance in family firms, whereas descendant management has a negative impact on firm performance and having external hired managers significantly improves investment performance. Moreover, we examine the effects of dual-class shares; we find that the separation of voting right from cash-flow right has a negative impact on performance in both family and non-family firms, but the negative effect is larger in family firms.   

Previous studies have shown that differences in corporate governance systems, traditions, and both formal and informal institutions appear to correlate with firm performance. It has been suggested that Scandinavia and South East Asia have similar ownership structures with vote differential shares, pyramids and strong family ownership. However, the regions have different legal traditions and hence formal institutions, and also informal institutions. This paper presents a detailed overview of firm performance for a sample of listed firms in Scandinavia (represented by Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden) and South East Asia (represented by Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea). Firm performance is estimated using both the Marginal q-approach and the Tobin’s Q on an unbalanced dataset from 1998 to 2006.

In this paper the relation between ownership structure, board composition and firm performance is explored. A panel of Swedish listed firms is used to investigate how board composition affects firm performance. Board heterogeneity is measured as board size, age and gender diversity. The results show that Swedish board of directors have become more diversified in terms of gender. Also, fewer firms have the CEO on the board which can be interpreted as a sign of increased independency. The regression analysis shows that gender diversity has a small but negative effect on investment performance, and the same holds for CEO being on the board. The analysis also show that board size has a significant negative effect on investment performance. When incorporating all the explanatory variables into one equation however, the negative effect of larger boards dilutes the effect of gender diversity and having the CEO on the board.

This paper explores the relation between ownership structure, board composition and firm performance among Swedish listed firms. The descriptive statistics show that Swedish board of directors have become more diversified in terms of gender. The analysis show that board size has a significant negative effect on investment performance. Gender diversity has a small but negative effect on investment performance, and the same holds for CEO being on the board. When incorporating all the explanatory variables into the same equation the negative effect of larger boards dilutes the effect of gender diversity and having the CEO on the board.

In this paper the relation between ownership structure, board composition and firm performance is explored. A panel of Swedish listed firms is used to investigate how board composition affects firm performance. Board heterogeneity is measured as board size, age and gender diversity. The results show that Swedish board of directors have become more diversified in terms of gender. Also, fewer firms have the CEO on the board which can be interpreted as a sign of increased independency. The regression analysis shows that gender diversity has a small but negative effect on investment performance, and the same holds for CEO being on the board. The analysis also show that board size has a significant negative effect on investment performance. When incorporating all the explanatory variables into one equation however, the negative effect of larger boards dilutes the effect of gender diversity and having the CEO on the board.