We examine the emergence, succession, and performance of the initial cohort of family firms in Latvia. Latvia offers a natural setting to examine succession challenges faced by first-generation firms because a majority of these firms were established shortly after the country regained independence in the early 1990s. Our findings indicate that in 44% of sample firms the founding family did not have a majority stake at incorporation, but accumulated a majority stake over the first few years (1991–1999). It takes seven years for the average family ownership stake to exceed 75% and 23 years for firms with second-generation owners to reach 16% of the sample. Notably, approximately 80% of the sample firms are still majority-owned and managed by their founders. In line with previous research, we find that family firms outperform nonfamily firms by 3.1% in return on assets (ROA).

中文翻译：

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家族企业继承：拉脱维亚第一代的过渡

我们研究了拉脱维亚第一批家族企业的出现、继承和绩效。拉脱维亚提供了一个自然的环境来研究第一代公司所面临的继承挑战，因为这些公司大多数是在 20 世纪 90 年代初该国重新获得独立后不久成立的。我们的研究结果表明，在 44% 的样本公司中，创始家族在公司成立时并不拥有多数股权，但在最初几年（1991-1999 年）积累了多数股权。平均家族持股比例需要 7 年时间才能超过 75%，而第二代所有者的企业则需要 23 年时间才能达到样本中的 16%。值得注意的是，约 80% 的样本公司仍由其创始人持有多数股权并管理。与之前的研究一致，我们发现家族企业的资产回报率 (ROA) 比非家族企业高出 3.1%。