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Sensitivity to shocks and implicit employment protection in family firms

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  • Bjuggren, Carl Magnus

Abstract

In this study I find that employment in family firms is less sensitive to performance and product market fluctuations. I show this by investigating aggregate fluctuations at the industry level as well as idiosyncratic firm level shocks. By differentiating between temporary and permanent shocks at the firm level, I find that family firms appear to be less anxious to translate temporary shocks into changes in employment. This supports the idea that family firms are able to offer their employees implicit employment protection. Family firms are believed to have longer time horizons, and are as owners more easily identified with their company and its actions. These are features that could make family firms more cautious in terms of adjusting their employment. Unlike previous contributions, I am able to identify all family firms, both private and public, by using full population data from tax registers.

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  • Bjuggren, Carl Magnus, 2015. "Sensitivity to shocks and implicit employment protection in family firms," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 18-31.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:119:y:2015:i:c:p:18-31
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2015.07.011
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    Cited by:

    1. Kölling, Arnd, 2016. "Family Firms and Labor Demand: Size Matters – But Only the Small Ones are Different," VfS Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change 145471, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    2. Block, Joern H. & Hirschmann, Mirko & Kranz, Tobias & Neuenkirch, Matthias, 2023. "Public family firms and economic inequality across societies," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 19(C).
    3. Santiago Lago-Peñas & Elena Rivo-López & Alberto Vaquero-García & Mónica Villanueva-Villar, 2018. "Do family firms contribute to job stability? Evidence from the great recession," Working Papers. Collection C: Family business 1801, Universidade de Vigo, GEN - Governance and Economics research Network.
    4. repec:zbw:imbwps:90 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Jörn H. Block & Christian O. Fisch & James Lau & Martin Obschonka & André Presse, 2019. "How Do Labor Market Institutions Influence the Preference to Work in Family Firms? A Multilevel Analysis Across 40 Countries," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 43(6), pages 1067-1093, November.
    6. Backman, Mikaela & Palmberg, Johanna, 2015. "Contextualizing small family firms: How does the urban–rural context affect firm employment growth?," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 247-258.
    7. Stefano Amato & Rodrigo Basco & Nicola Lattanzi, 2022. "Contextualizing employment outcomes in family business research: current findings and future research avenues," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 72(2), pages 531-604, June.
    8. Andersson, Fredrik W. & Johansson, Dan & Karlsson, Johan & Lodefalk, Magnus & Poldahl, Andreas, 2017. "The Characteristics and Performance of Family Firms: Exploiting information on ownership, governance and kinship using total population data," Working Papers 2017:1, Örebro University, School of Business.
    9. Amore, Mario Daniele & Pelucco, Valerio & Quarato, Fabio, 2022. "Family ownership during the Covid-19 pandemic," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    10. Johansson, Dan & Karlsson, Johan & Malm, Arvid, 2020. "Family business—A missing link in economics?," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 11(1).
    11. DODERO ORTIZ DE ZEVALLOS Gino Felix & CLEMENTE-ALMENDROS José Antonio & BAHAMONDES ROSADO María Emilia, 2023. "The Covid-19 Crisis And The Financial Impact On Family Firms," Studies in Business and Economics, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Faculty of Economic Sciences, vol. 18(2), pages 86-108, August.
    12. Christopher Hansen & Joern Block & Matthias Neuenkirch, 2020. "Family Firm Performance Over The Business Cycle: A Meta‐Analysis," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(3), pages 476-511, July.
    13. Banerjee, Pradip & Dhole, Sandip & Mishra, Sagarika, 2023. "Operating performance during the COVID-19 pandemic: Is there a business group advantage?," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    14. Creemers, Sarah & Peeters, Ludo & Quiroz Castillo, Juan Luis & Vancauteren, Mark & Voordeckers, Wim, 2023. "Family firms and the labor productivity controversy: A distributional analysis of varying labor productivity gaps," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 14(2).
    15. Gunnarsson, Emma & Kärnä, Anders & Olsson, Martin & Persson, Lars, 2023. "Family Firms: In All Shapes and Sizes," Working Paper Series 1461, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    16. Philipp Krug & Dominika Langenmayr, 2024. "Taxing Transitions: Inheritance Tax and Family Firm Succession," Working Papers 233, Bavarian Graduate Program in Economics (BGPE).
    17. Karlsson, Johan, 2018. "Does regional context matter for family firm employment growth?," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 9(4), pages 293-310.
    18. Fredrik W. Andersson & Dan Johansson & Johan Karlsson & Magnus Lodefalk & Andreas Poldahl, 2018. "The characteristics of family firms: exploiting information on ownership, kinship, and governance using total population data," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 51(3), pages 539-556, October.
    19. Stefano Amato & Alessia Patuelli & Rodrigo Basco & Nicola Lattanzi, 2023. "Family Firms Amidst the Global Financial Crisis: A Territorial Embeddedness Perspective on Downsizing," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 183(1), pages 213-236, February.
    20. Francisco C. Marques & Fernando A. F. Ferreira & Constantin Zopounidis & Audrius Banaitis, 2022. "A system dynamics-based approach to determinants of family business growth," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 311(2), pages 799-819, April.
    21. Christian Fisch & Michael Wyrwich & Thi Lanh Nguyen & Joern H. Block, 2020. "Historical institutional differences and entrepreneurship: the case of socialist legacy in Vietnam," Jena Economics Research Papers 2020-002, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    22. Kölling, Arnd, 2017. "Employment in family firms: Less but safe? Analyzing labor demand of German family firms with a treatment model for panel data," Working Papers 92, Berlin School of Economics and Law, Institute of Management Berlin (IMB).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Family firms; Employment protection; Shocks;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance
    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure

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