Introduction

Family firms are the prevalent type of organization around the world (La Porta, Lopez-de-Silanes, & Shleifer, 1999; Burkard, Panunzi & Shleifer, 2003; Morck & Yeung, 2003). They account for a proportion of around 80 % of all firms in the US and constitute more than 60% of the country's GDP (Daily & Dollinger, 1992; Astrachan & Shanker, 2003). In Germany, family firms represent nearly 60% of all businesses (Klein, 2000) and account for more than 60% of all sales (Haunschild, Wallau, Hauser, & Wolter, 2007). Comparably high shares have been reported for the rest of Western Europe (45%) and the East Asian region (68%) (Faccio & Lang, 2002; Claessens, Djankov, & Lang, 2000). In Central and Latin America, family firms represent about two thirds of national firms while a share of 75% has been estimated for Australia (IFERA, 2003).