(2014-11-27) Sepúlveda, Jean P.; Jara-Bertin, Mauricio
This study introduces an earnings management dimension to compute premanipulated
accounting performance to determine whether family-controlled firms have higher
performance relative to non-family-controlled firms. Using a premanipulated return on assets measure for Chilean firms dataset, we find that the premanipulated performance of family controlled firms is superior to that of non-family-controlled firms. We also show that the presence of institutional investors in the firm’s ownership structure has a positive influence on performance of family companies. The results suggest that earnings management behavior is not sufficient to explain the higher performance of family-controlled firms that has been reported in the literature