Family Enterprise Insights

I’ve got a special place near my heart for Dan & Whit’s general store in Norwich, Vermont.  

Entrepreneurship in the United States continues to be a major path to wealth creation for individuals and their families.

Entrepreneurs are different from other people. Their talent lies in imagining a new solution or a fresh approach that gives the world something it may not have even realized it needed. Building a successful enterprise from start-up to sustained profitability demands total immersion. 

During the last 50 years, the number and scope of women-owned businesses have risen at a virtually unprecedented rate

Dynastic-controlled firms are led by founding-family CEOs while the family owns an insignificant share of equity (defined as less than 5%).

The claim that most family businesses fail in the third generation is refuted in this study by Thomas Zellwegger and colleagues.

‘I’m not sure they’re ready yet.’ Over the last few years, we have become accustomed to hearing this complaint, or others like it, from family business leaders, anxious about who from the next generation will follow in their footsteps as stewards.

Most articles or speeches about family businesses start with some version of the “three-generation rule,” which suggests that most don’t survive beyond three generations. 

Columbia’s Earle W. Kazis and Benjamin Schore Professor of Real Estate, Stijn G. Van Nieuwerburgh, explores how long-term interest rates track with wealth inequality.