The role of heirs in family businesses: The case of Carvajal

Abstract

We extend the Palia, Ravid and Wang (2008) model of family succession, and argue that family CEOs can be successful if certain characteristics, such as private knowledge, non monetary benefits from managing the firm, and personal skills are met. We use Carvajal, a large Colombian business group, to support our ideas and show that, contrary to international empirical evidence, there are certain circumstances where efforts made by heirs can be similar to those of the founder and exceed those of outside managers