Volume II | March 2021
Family Enterprise Insights

At the Global Family Enterprise Program, we believe that it's essential to examine and understand ownership and governance in order to understand family enterprises - the heart of the world's economy and society. This volume of Family Enterprise Insights looks at these issues from three different angles: first, what academic research impacted the relevance of pyramidal ownership to family business groups; second, how family business ownership and governance tells us about the opioid crisis; and third, how one family's experience with a family constitution can provide lessons for others who wish to enhance their own family governance.

We’re delighted to share the most insightful research, wisdom, and advice from leading global scholars, family enterprise principals, and expert practitioners with our global community because we know it’s important to you and to society. 

Visit our site for more, and keep checking as we continue to add more insights.

In this timeless research paper - “A Theory of Pyramidal Ownership and Family Business Groups” - Professor Daniel Wolfenzon and colleagues examine family firm ownership with a view toward incentives, control, and consequences.
PRACTITIONER PERSPECTIVES

Professor Patricia Angus, Managing Director of the Global Family Enterprise Program, examines the opioid crisis from the perspective of governance and family. She provides key takeaways from this complicated, and often chilling, story that can help others who own and manage complex family enterprises.

Many families find that a Family Constitution provides a framework for articulating family values, decision-making, and processes. Razak Dawood ’68, Founding Advisory Board member of Columbia’s Global Family Enterprise Program, provides insights from his own experience.
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