Family Enterprise Insights

Dynastic-controlled firms are led by founding-family CEOs while the family owns an insignificant share of equity (defined as less than 5%).

The claim that most family businesses fail in the third generation is refuted in this study by Thomas Zellwegger and colleagues.

‘I’m not sure they’re ready yet.’ Over the last few years, we have become accustomed to hearing this complaint, or others like it, from family business leaders, anxious about who from the next generation will follow in their footsteps as stewards.

Most articles or speeches about family businesses start with some version of the “three-generation rule,” which suggests that most don’t survive beyond three generations. 

Columbia’s Earle W. Kazis and Benjamin Schore Professor of Real Estate, Stijn G. Van Nieuwerburgh, explores how long-term interest rates track with wealth inequality.

The New Ideas in Family Firms Academic – Practitioner Conference, co-hosted online with Columbia’s Global Family Enterprise Program and INSEAD’s Wendel International Centre for Family Enterprise, took place on May 7, 2021. Leading academic researchers and global practitioners discussed the role of the family enterprise in society, the meaning and potential for ESG practices, and ways that the pandemic has impacted family enterprise advisory work

Leaders in retail, real estate, and spoke about how their businesses pivoted during the pandemic and what the “new normal” looks like.

Columbia alumni, Cheyenne Wiskerke ’13 and Alan Wasserstrom ’63, share stories of the businesses they inherited and led — and some of the lessons they learned along the way.

As co-founder of Blue Nectar Tequila, Nikhil Bahadur ’12 and his father, Bn Bahadur, turned his passion for the Mexican spirit into an award-winning brand.