Decisions

Last week, we proudly watched the Class of 2026 graduate, and it feels like it is the right moment to ask a question that sits at the heart of both career development and family enterprise continuity: where can talent truly grow?

As Columbia Business School deepens its institutional commitment to AI through its AI in Business Initiative and the upcoming "MBA Transformed: AI and Beyond" teaching symposium on June 1, 2026, family enterprises face a parallel question: is AI a threat to legacy, or a new way to coauthor it? A recent study in the Journal of Product Innovation Management, "AI Adoption in Family Firms: A Mixed-Methods Study on the Paradoxical Roles of Passive and Active Family Involvement," suggests AI adoption is as much a relationship and governance challenge as a technological one. Drawing on 125 interviews and survey data from 1,444 German firms, the authors find that passive family ownership may slow adoption, while active family management can accelerate it, particularly when paired with strong external ties to suppliers, customers, and even competitors. For enterprising families, the deeper insight is that legacy is not static; it is interpreted and renewed across generations. AI may become a voice of the next generation, offering younger family members a concrete way to contribute to continuity, if families are willing to turn legacy into a living conversation. Read the full article, Is AI a Threat to Legacy, or a New Way to Coauthor It?

A global survey of 525 family firm decision-makers across 21 countries finds that founder identity, whether Missionary or Darwinian, shapes philanthropic behavior across generations. Missionary founders, driven by social purpose, produce giving that grows stronger over time as their legacy is idealized and absorbed into family identity. Darwinian founders, motivated by competitive logic, engage in more reputational giving that can shift with other priorities. Transgenerational control intentions further complicate the picture: families focused on succession may quietly redirect philanthropic energy inward. For advisors, the implication is clear: identity, not just structure, determines whether family giving becomes a lasting legacy or a secondary priority. Read the full article, What Our Giving Says About Us, and explore the Richards & Kammerlander study in Family Business Review.

A large-scale global study of 3,322 publicly listed firms across 32 OECD countries finds that family involvement is, on average, associated with lower market valuation, particularly when renewal investment is weak or governance rigor is unclear. While family ownership is discounted less in strong institutional environments, the valuation penalty tied to family CEOs persists across contexts. Crucially, underinvestment in R&D partially explains this performance gap, suggesting that visible, disciplined innovation is a key credibility signal to markets.For family enterprises, the message is not anti-control. It is structural: legacy, governance, and geography determine whether family influence fuels long-term value or quietly contributes to “innovation reluctance.”

This piece closes the loop on a year of Family Enterprise Insights by naming the common thread beneath our 2025 research: trust as infrastructure.

Columbia Business School study finds that more voters who tie their political views to their identity are more likely to adopt extreme views and vote for extreme candidates

New Columbia Business School study finds A.I. tools like ChatGPT consistently favor the first option presented when evaluating choices—but aggregating results from multiple, differently-worded prompts cancels out the bias

Columbia Business School research finds both shoppers and retailers benefit from “retail media”, where retailers use sponsored listings as part of product searches

Research from Columbia Business School Reveals How Consumers Perceive Pricing Set by Algorithms

On the surface—Manny Maceda admits—it might look like his journey to the very highest rung at Bain & Company was quite typical.