Volume 1 · Research & solutions
310 results
Family governance & succession · Original source
Muneer Bham; Anastacia Mamabolo; Steven Zwane
Orientation: Family businesses contribute significantly to economic growth; yet, they face succession-planning challenges stemming from the interplay between family and business dynamics.
Family governance & succession · Solutions companion
Family Office Private Wealth Journal · Editorial research desk
A proposed succession council combines respectful participation with written authority, disagreement records and independent facilitation. It draws on South African qualitative evidence without treating a cultural principle as an automatic assurance of good governance.
Succession across contexts · Original source
José António Porfírio; Tiago Carrilho; Joseph Hassid; Ricardo Rodrigues
Family business succession is a key topic that has attracted considerable attention from researchers, especially in the last decade. Most research, however, is based on case studies with limited applicability and fails to present comparisons across international contexts that highlight differences in succession processes. We apply expectation states theory to analyze a sample of 128 observations in two Southern European countries, Portugal and Greece. We study configurations of successors’ characteristics, family business characteristics, the existence (or absence) of a succession plan, and successors’ motivation to succeed. Our aim is to reveal how these issues affect successors’ perceptions of preparation for succession using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). Family businesses are a dominant organizational form all over the world, and succession issues are critical for the sustainability of family businesses. Our findings suggest that different configurations of conditions influence successors’ perceptions of preparation for family business succession. Moreover, we verify the influence of cultural differences on these processes. This research helps fill a gap in the literature, showing the role of a set of characteristics in successors’ perceptions of preparation for family business succession. Our conclusions provide insight into the types of policies that can promote successful family business succession.
Succession across contexts · Solutions companion
Family Office Private Wealth Journal · Editorial research desk
An implementation design for assessing successor preparation without treating family lineage, a written plan or a single competency score as sufficient. The source study informs the questions; the laboratory and its measures are proposed editorial tools.
Family authority & controls · Original source
Daniel Magalhães Mucci; Ann Jorissen; Fabio Frezatti; Diógenes de Souza Bido
In most studies, the affiliation of the manager (family-affiliated or non-family affiliated) and supposedly related behavior (agent or steward) is considered the sole antecedent to explain a family business’ (non) professionalization of managerial controls. This paper, based on Luhmann’s new system theory, examines whether a family’s decision premises influence the design of managerial controls in family firms in addition to a manager’s family affiliation status. Using survey data of 135 large and medium-sized Brazilian family firms and testing the hypotheses with SEM, this study provides evidence that a family’s decision premises significantly influence the design of managerial controls in family firms. This study provides evidence that when a family’s intention to transfer the firm to next generation (TGO) is high, more formal controls, as well as controls of a more participative nature are adopted in a family firm. Moreover, the results do not indicate that the level of family involvement in management affects the design of controls in firms with high TGO. The results only showed a significant relationship between a family’s intention to control and influence (FCI) the firm and the absence of participative controls. In addition, these findings also illustrate that each single family-induced decision premise has the potential to explain family firm behavior, since each of the two premises considered in our study is related to a different design of the controls adopted by the family firm.
Family authority & controls · Solutions companion
Family Office Private Wealth Journal · Editorial research desk
A proposed method for pairing formal reporting with participation as family firms prepare for continuity. It translates observed associations into a testable governance experiment rather than a prescription to add bureaucracy.
Family office financing & liquidity · Original source
Antonia Schickinger; Alexandra Bertschi-Michel; Max P. Leitterstorf; Nadine Kammerlander
Family office financing & liquidity · Solutions companion
Family Office Private Wealth Journal · Editorial research desk
This solutions article proposes a financing mandate that distinguishes family preferences, contractual obligations and observable liquidity evidence. It uses comparative single-family-office research to motivate questions rather than prescribe leverage. A staged implementation and synthetic stress exercise provide a way to evaluate whether decision authority and unresolved funding dependencies become clearer.
Private equity & venture capital · Original source
Douglas Cumming; Satish Kumar; Weng Marc Lim; Nitesh Pandey
Private equity & venture capital · Solutions companion
Family Office Private Wealth Journal · Editorial research desk
This practice article proposes a structured evidence passport for family-office investment committees. It translates a bibliometric map of private-equity and venture-capital scholarship into a process for classifying claims, recording contrary evidence, allocating responsibility and reviewing decisions. The passport is a proposed governance mechanism, with evaluation criteria for a pilot; it is not a tested investment strategy.
Entrepreneurial & angel capital · Original source
Viviana Fernandez
Recent literature has focused on the venture capital investments of large family firms made through their family offices. However, evidence regarding informal venture capital provided to nascent entrepreneurs by small family businesses is scant. I contribute to the literature by modeling the angel investments of about 30,000 family and non-family business entrepreneurs across 49 countries, who contributed about $64 million to businesses started by other entrepreneurs over a 3-year period. Based on this sample, I conclude that in countries with higher rates of small family businesses, angel investors are likely fewer, and the amounts invested in start-ups are also lower. Furthermore, I conclude that the owners/managers of small family businesses invest comparatively less capital in start-ups, irrespective of family relationships. I infer that this is attributable to the financing preferences of family businesses, which favor the use of internal resources for their continuity and the growth of their family capital.
Entrepreneurial & angel capital · Solutions companion
Family Office Private Wealth Journal · Editorial research desk
An educational process for separating a family business’s operating needs from a proposed angel-investment mandate, with explicit authority, evidence and learning objectives.
Entrepreneurship through acquisition · Original source
Alexander Hoffmann; Dominik K. Kanbach; Stephan Stubner
Entrepreneurship through acquisition (ETA) is gaining momentum as a viable alternative to starting a company on one’s own. However, despite its growing practical relevance, scholarly work about ETA is scarce and has not been comprehensively reviewed. To address this gap, we conduct a systematic review of entrepreneurship literature by identifying studies that examine ETA and its outcomes. Our review methodology was developed based on established guidelines for systematic reviews and protocols, which informed our scoping review process and analytical approach. Searches were conducted on three electronic databases, and inclusion/exclusion criteria were applied. For inclusion, studies must examine an entrepreneurial perspective in buying into a company. Quantitative and qualitative data were extracted for thematic analysis and descriptive statistics. ETA is an entrepreneurship model with growing appeal and relevance in practice but limited academic evidence. While there is extensive research on leveraged buyouts and family-external succession, evidence specifically on ETA is still lacking. In particular, knowledge about the entrepreneurial intent that makes ETA unique is absent from the evidence base. As ETA gains momentum, entrepreneurs need to understand the unique properties, the various approaches, and the upsides and eventual downsides of acquiring a business instead of starting one from scratch. The present work may serve as a starting point for future research as we scope existing evidence on the archetype of ETA and identify a definition, available models, and a process archetype.
Entrepreneurship through acquisition · Solutions companion
Family Office Private Wealth Journal · Editorial research desk
A proposed family-office process for evaluating entrepreneurship-through-acquisition opportunities without confusing historical search-fund descriptions with a forecast or treating the acquisition decision as a substitute for succession planning.
Asset allocation & alternatives · Original source
Tom Arnold; John H. Earl; Joseph Farizo; David North
Asset allocation & alternatives · Solutions companion
Family Office Private Wealth Journal · Editorial research desk
This article proposes a spending-first review process that asks whether institutional portfolio research transfers to a particular family-office context. It organizes evidence about obligations, liquidity, model assumptions and decision authority before comparing portfolio proposals. The protocol offers a testable governance design and does not prescribe allocations, products or expected returns.
Impact measurement · Original source
Timo Busch; Peter Bruce-Clark; Jeroen Derwall; Robert Eccles; Tessa Hebb; Andreas Hoepner; Christian Klein; Philipp Krueger; Falko Paetzold; Bert Scholtens; Olaf Weber
Practitioners and academics have been using different terms to describe investments in the sustainability context. The latest inflationary term is impact investments—investments that focus on real-world changes in terms of solving social challenges and/or mitigating ecological degradation. At the core of this definition is an emphasis on transformational changes. However, the term impact investment is often used interchangeably for any investment that incorporates environmental, social, and governance (ESG) aspects. In the latter instance, achieving transformational change is not the main purpose of such investments, which therefore carries the risk of impact washing (akin to “green washing”). To offer (re-)orientation from an academic perspective, we derive a new typology of sustainable investments. This typology delivers a precise definition of what impact investments are and what they should cover. As one central contribution, we propose distinguishing between impact-aligned investments and impact-generating investments. Based on these insights, we hope to lay the foundation for future research and debates in the field of impact investing by practitioners, policymakers, and academics alike.
Impact measurement · Solutions companion
Family Office Private Wealth Journal · Editorial research desk
An operational proposal turns broad impact language into an inspectable record of intended change, contribution mechanisms and unresolved uncertainty.
Values & impact governance · Original source
Brett R. Smith; Amanda Lawson; Jessica Jones; Tim Holcomb; Aimee Minnich
While research has focused on financial and social goals in impact investing, we add to the limited research that focuses on how individuals manage identity multiplicity, defined as three or more role identities. Based on our qualitative study of Christian impact investors, we develop a model of identity multiplicity work, explaining how individuals manage their multiple role identities (financial, social, and religious) to reduce identity tensions during the process of impact investing. We find individuals engaged in an interactive, ongoing three-step process of identity multiplicity work: prioritizing one of their salient identities, managing their identity multiplicity interrelationships, and reinforcing their prioritized identity. Investors generally prioritized an identity that was neither financial nor social, but rather religious. We also find this identity work implemented through three novel mechanisms: shadowing, one identity casts a shadow over another thereby enabling the simultaneous pursuit of related goals; distinguishing, all identities are retained and at least a minimum threshold of role expectations are met; and surrendering, partial sacrificing of goals of one (or more) identity in favor of another identity based on an individual’s self-reflective importance of the role. Our findings offer new insights to multiple identities, impact investing and business ethics literatures.
Values & impact governance · Solutions companion
Family Office Private Wealth Journal · Editorial research desk
A proposed governance exercise helps families articulate how financial, social, religious and other commitments shape an impact mandate while respecting disagreement and individual privacy.
Investor–enterprise alignment · Original source
Anirudh Agrawal; Kai Hockerts
Impact investing pursues the dual goals of creating socio-economic value for the marginalized, and ensuring net positive financial returns. Impact investing firms achieve their goals through their investments in projects and enterprises which create both social and commercial values. The primary aim of this article is to contribute to our understanding of the process of impact investing, particularly with respect to issues related to aligning impact investing and investee social enterprise goals. The research method employs case-based research methodology. The data consist of six cases of impact investing and their investee social enterprises. In addition, the data involve interviews with experts from the field of impact investing. The findings are that: (1) Social mission plays an important moderating role in the inter-organizational relationship between the impact investor and the investee social enterprise, (2) and an emphasis on due diligence, sector specialization, and communication increases the likelihood of investment while (3) social impact measurement and reporting and frequent engagement increase the likelihood of post-investment alignment. The key contribution of this article is that impact investing (unlike venture capital) is influenced by the ability of its investee to create social value, which plays an important role in the inter-organizational relationship between investor and investee. Furthermore, similar to industry specialization in the for-profit investing, social sector specialization is equally relevant for alignment and returns.
Investor–enterprise alignment · Solutions companion
Family Office Private Wealth Journal · Editorial research desk
A proposed compact helps investment committees and social enterprises make mission expectations, reporting costs and conflict resolution visible throughout an investment relationship.
Philanthropy & learning · Original source
Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society
A practitioner toolkit from the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society for clarifying values, selecting areas of giving, developing a philanthropic strategy and learning from practice.
Philanthropy & learning · Solutions companion
Family Office Private Wealth Journal · Editorial research desk
A proposed family-office implementation routine brings the Stanford PACS toolkit’s six areas into a manageable giving cycle while preserving recipient voice and proportionate reporting.
Private equity governance & impact · Original source
David Birchall; Nadia Bernaz
In this article, we apply the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights to the private equity (PE) business model. PE firms often adopt a controversial, ‘value extractive’, business model based on high debt and extreme cost-cutting to generate investor returns. PE firms own large numbers of companies, including in many rights-related sectors. The model is linked to increased human rights risks to workers, housing tenants, and in privatized health and social care. We map these risks and analyse the human rights responsibilities of PE firms. Our analysis has major implications for understandings of human rights responsibility. We argue that value extractive methods are the root cause of eventual harm to human rights, even though they may not harm rights directly. To respect human rights, PE firms must mitigate the risks of these value extractive methods. We define how human rights due diligence (HRDD) could achieve this and argue that given the extent of harm and the lack of a business case for adopting such a view of human rights responsibility, business strategy level HRDD should be a core component of forthcoming HRDD laws.
Private equity governance & impact · Solutions companion
Family Office Private Wealth Journal · Editorial research desk
This practice article proposes a strategy-level human-rights diligence workflow for family offices and other private-market owners. It connects financing and operating assumptions to affected people, assigns responsibility for evidence and escalation, and defines a way to evaluate the completeness of the review. It translates legal-conceptual scholarship into an editorial governance proposal without asserting legal compliance or measured effectiveness.
Digital finance & cyber resilience · Original source
Olumayowa Adefowope Adekoya; Hany F. Atlam; Harjinder Singh Lallie
The increasing frequency and sophistication of cyber attacks have posed significant challenges for digital financial organisations, particularly in quantifying their multidimensional impacts. These challenges are largely attributed to the lack of a standardised cyber impact taxonomy, limited data availability, and the evolving nature of technological threats. As a result, organisations often struggle with ineffective security investment prioritisation, reactive incident response planning, and the inability to implement robust, risk-based controls. Hence, an efficient and comprehensive approach is needed to quantify the diverse impacts of cyber attacks in digital financial services. This paper presents a systematic review and examination of the state of the art in cyber impact quantification, with a particular focus on digital financial organisations. Based on a structured search strategy, 44 articles (out of 637) were selected for in-depth analysis. The review investigates the terminologies used to describe cyber impacts, categorises current quantification techniques (pre-attack and post-attack), and identifies the most commonly utilised internal and external data sources. Furthermore, it explores the application of Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) techniques in cyber security risk quantification. Our findings reveal a significant lack of standardised taxonomy for describing and quantifying the multidimensional impact of cyberattacks across physical, digital, economic, psychological, reputational, and societal dimensions. Lastly, open issues and future research directions are discussed. This work provides insights for researchers and professionals by consolidating and identifying quantification technique gaps in cyber security risk quantification.Keywords: risk quantification, impact quantification, taxonomy, cyber security impact, multidimensional impact, digital financial service, machine learning, deep learning
Digital finance & cyber resilience · Solutions companion
Family Office Private Wealth Journal · Editorial research desk
This solutions article proposes a consequence-based cyber incident exercise for family offices. It translates a systematic review of digital-finance cyber impact measurement into a practical rehearsal that records operational dependencies, uncertainty, authority and recovery evidence. The design is a proposed learning intervention and does not estimate expected financial loss or certify security.
Napa forum · AI, judgment & the purpose of wealth · Solutions companion
Family Office Private Wealth Journal · Editorial research desk
Artificial intelligence creates a governance question for family offices: how should gains in operating capacity be converted into decisions that remain accountable and lives that remain worth living? A closing discussion attributed by the attendee to Andrew Roettger, moderated by Sophia Swire at the Napa forum, connects three concerns often considered separately: the usefulness of AI, the obligation to verify its outputs, and the purpose of wealth beyond accumulation. This editorial analysis proposes a three-part stewardship framework—productive capacity, accountable judgment and protected human purpose. It distinguishes the supplied conversation from independently checked research and from the journal’s own proposals. It argues for task-level evaluation, full-cost measurement and explicit decisions about how recovered time is used. The framework is conceptual; no family-office trial, portfolio-return estimate or causal market finding is reported.
Napa forum · AI, judgment & the purpose of wealth · Solutions companion
Family Office Private Wealth Journal · Editorial research desk
This companion translates the forum analysis into a proposed 90-day family-office pilot. It evaluates one bounded, reversible AI-assisted workflow while recording verification effort, errors, costs and the eventual use of any time saved. The protocol preserves human decision authority and adds a family-purpose review so that operating gains are not assumed to create wellbeing or better stewardship automatically. The schedule and measures are editorial design choices, not validated standards. No trial has been conducted and no performance improvement is promised.