Time: 1:00 - 2:00pm Venue: FB4.04/08, 4th Floor, Bancroft Building, Mile End Campus, Queen Mary, University of London, London, E1 4NS
Prof Antonio Majocchi , Associate Professor in International Business, Faculty of Economics, University of PaviaAntonio Majocchi is Associate Professor of International Business and Management at the Faculty of Economics, University of Pavia (Italy). His research focuses on firms internationalisation and his most recent interest regards the impact of corporate governance on firms’ international strategies. He publishes his researches in international journals like: International Small Business Journal, International Business Review, Transnational corporation¸ Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Small Business Management; Management International Review. He has been a visiting scholars at the King’s College London, at the University of Valencia, at the Management School of the Strasbourg University and at the University of Fribourg (CH). http://economia.unipv.it/pagp/pagine_personali/amajocchi/pavia2.htm
Are family firms more internationally involved than non-family firms? The case of Italy
There is limited research on the international strategies of family firms. Some have argued that because family owners tend to be relatively more risk averse and restrict their management to family members, who may be internationally inexperienced, family firms should be relatively less internationally involved than firms with dispersed ownership. On the other hand, family firms are said to have the longer time horizon needed for the significant investments required to penetrate international markets. Empirical studies tend to find that family firms are less internationalized, but they have mostly focused on SMEs and have used a less-than-optimal measure of internationalization. The paper look at the foreign sales of a panel of 263 Italian firms listed on the Milan stock exchange. Using a gravity-model that allows for a better measure of internationalization, we find that Italian family-managed firms have higher foreign sales than non-family firms, but that this is not true when the family does not participate in management. The positive impact that family management has on foreign sales is higher for regions at greater psychic distance from Italy.
*Research themes: International Business/Globalisation * Corporate goverance*Chaired by Dr Lutao Ning *Lunch will be available in the 4th Floor kitchen from 12.00pm