In this paper we analyzed the behaviour of family owners in the relationship with non-family managers, focusing on the CEO replacement decision. We compared family and non- family controlled companies and explored the differences among family firms with respect to relevant governance attributes. We perform our analysis on data drawn from a panel of Italian listed companies over a 10 year period. Our results suggest that family owners are special category of major shareholders with respect to (1) the definition of goals that the CEO must pursue and (2) the characteristics of the monitoring process.
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