Late Stage entrepreneurial activity: What students should know about family-owned and family-controlled companies

Abstract

Family shareholders expecting to fulfill their responsibility of aligning management interests with shareholder priorities and holding management accountable need a thorough understanding of financial statements. They need to be able to make sense of what the numbers say about the firm and its competitiveness. Financial literacy is, therefore, essential knowledge for every shareholder, not just the ones active in the management of the company. Without it, the desirable alignment of management and shareholders is at risk. Without it, family-business shareholders can easily become just as indifferent or impatient, fickle, and greedy as hedge fund managers and investors on Wall Street. The latter, aided by analysts and the media, often pressure well-managed publicly traded companies into short-term thinking.

Citation

Poza, E.J. (2010), "Late Stage entrepreneurial activity: What students should know about family-owned and family-controlled companies", Stewart, A., Lumpkin, G.T. and Katz, J.A. (Ed.) Entrepreneurship and Family Business (Advances in Entrepreneurship, Firm Emergence and Growth, Vol. 12), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 359-366. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1074-7540(2010)0000012020