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10 - Listed Family Firms

from Part IV - Types of Firms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 December 2025

Zenichi Shishido
Affiliation:
Musashino University, Tokyo
Wei Shen
Affiliation:
Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China
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Summary

A significant percentage of listed companies are under the influence of founding families by stock ownership and/or family managers, even in developed countries, including the United States. In the United States, when the founders retire, they tend to hire professional managers and sell out their shares. In Japan, approximately 50% of listed companies are family firms, many of which are managed by founders’ heirs without substantial family ownership. In China, although family firms are relatively new because Chinese law traditionally prohibited private enterprises, family firms have grown rapidly since the transformation from a planned to a market-oriented economy in 1978. Generally speaking, founder firms’ performance is significantly better than that of non-family firms in most countries, but heir-managing firms’ performance varies in different countries. Prevalent types of listed family firms and their relative performance to non-family firms reflect minority shareholder protection law, the size of the manager market, and the corporate governance practice of each country.

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  • Listed Family Firms
  • Zenichi Shishido, Musashino University, Tokyo, Wei Shen, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China
  • Book: Incentive Bargaining and Corporate Governance
  • Online publication: 12 December 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009152808.016
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  • Listed Family Firms
  • Zenichi Shishido, Musashino University, Tokyo, Wei Shen, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China
  • Book: Incentive Bargaining and Corporate Governance
  • Online publication: 12 December 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009152808.016
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Listed Family Firms
  • Zenichi Shishido, Musashino University, Tokyo, Wei Shen, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China
  • Book: Incentive Bargaining and Corporate Governance
  • Online publication: 12 December 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009152808.016
Available formats
×