A family affair: The relationship between family control and performance in Swedish public firms

Sammanfattning: This study examines the influence of family control on market and operational performance among the largest listed companies on Nasdaq Stockholm. Our results reveal that family control has a positive effect on market performance, but not on operational performance. We also find that unaffiliated block holders positively contribute to family firms' operational performance, while family management does not impact firm performance. Contrary to agency theory, family firms with higher agency problems do not exhibit worse performance compared to those with lower agency problems. However, our study finds that the positive impact of family control on market performance is offset when families employ dual share class systems, and their vote holding exceeds their share ownership by more than 25 percentage points.