One Child Policy and Family Business in China
Publication Type
Journal Article
Publication Date
7-2005
Abstract
Family business plays important roles to fuel economic growth in China. Due to the one-child policy, family firms are increasingly facing human capital constraints for within-family succession. Having only one heir decreases the probability of continuing family management by over 3 percent, reduces the probability of adult children working in family firms by 14 percent, and significantly decreases founders’ expectations of having young heirs for succession. Having fewer children negatively affects founder’s expectation to go public, reduces family firm’s reinvestment rate and R&D. Overall, the evidence suggests that the human capital constraints due to the one-child policy impose significant negative impacts on within-family succession. Dynastic management of family firms remains an important challenge for first-generation entrepreneurs in China.
Keywords
one-child policy, economic growth, family firms, control, dynastic management, succession, China
Discipline
Business
Publication
Journal of Corporate Finance
ISSN
0929-1199
Identifier
10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2015.01.005
Citation
CAO, Xiaping; Cumming, Douglas; and Wang, Xiaoming.
One Child Policy and Family Business in China. (2005). Journal of Corporate Finance.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/4345
External URL
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0929119915000061