Article

Journal of New Business Ventures

Family Business in India: 1(1–2) 9–30, 2020
© 2020 Shailesh J. Mehta School
Performance, Challenges of Management, Indian Institute of
Technology Bombay
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Measures DOI: 10.1177/2632962X20960824
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Himani Chahal1 and Anil K. Sharma1

Abstract
Existing literature on family businesses brings out their significance globally. The
prevalence of family businesses is a phenomenon that is universal and found in
most countries worldwide, although their relative impact on economies does
vary.This article reviews papers in the accounting and finance literature on family
businesses around the world and shows that the involvement of family members
in the business may have a positive, negative or no impact on its financial
performance. In the Indian context, the literature review indicates that India’s rich
and ancient history seems to be interrelated with the family-run businesses as the
principal means of business organization. The paper gives a glimpse of the status
of family businesses in India since independence and the distinct characteristics
of Indian family businesses.
  In the next section, we try to find out how family firms are performing in India
in comparison to non-family firms by studying companies listed in the National
Stock Exchange of India Ltd. (NSE) 500 Index for a period of 5 years ranging
from 2014 to 2018. The results show that family businesses are not performing
significantly better than non-family firms in the Indian business scenario. We try
to highlight the reasons for the same by underlining the issues faced by family
businesses and suggest measures to overcome these issues. The study concludes
with a discussion on the lessons that new family business ventures can take from
family business groups in India that have made a mark in the Indian and the world
business scenario because of their ability to face and successfully overcome
challenges faced by family firms.

Keywords
Ownership, management, Indian family firms, performance, challenges,
improvement measures

1
Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India.

Corresponding author:
Himani Chahal, Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee,
Uttarakhand 247667, India.
E-mail: hchahal@bm.iitr.ac.in
10 Journal of New Business Ventures 1(1–2)

Introduction
Family controlled businesses are the firms that are under the ownership and, in
most cases, management as well of a single founder–owner or family, that is,
close relations. Family businesses form a major and crucial segment of many
nations around the world (Miller & Le Breton-Miller, 2005). Between 65 and 80
per cent of the businesses in the world are estimated to be family firms (Flören,
1998). Extant literature on family businesses demonstrates that this model of
organizational structure and ownership is quite popular across the world, including
North America, Europe and Asia. Globally, family businesses make an important
contribution to the GDP of economies, stock market capitalization and employ-
ment. Depending on the country of origin, family businesses may account for
20–70 per cent of the biggest companies globally (La Porta et al., 1999).
India has a rich business history and the traditional form of firm ownership in
India has been based on families. A significant number of businesses are still
being controlled and managed by families. Even though family firms in India are
significant contributors to the country’s growth, they have faced serious competi-
tion since the liberalization of the Indian economy in 1991, from the global giants.
Thus, the Indian family businesses faced a new environment and the family busi-
nesses that were proactive and flexible in their approach were able to survive and
flourish in the new business environment in India, whereas others were not able
to withstand the pressure of the newly created freedom and failed to become
leaders in their field. It has been observed that research on Indian family busi-
nesses, particularly on their financial performance, does not appear to be entirely
commensurate with the prevalence of family business in India and their impor-
tance and impact on the Indian economy and business scenario.
In this reference, it is suitable to learn how family firms in India have been
performing after liberalization and also compare their performance with non-
family peers. We study the companies included in the NSE 500 Index for the
period 2014–2018 and try to find out the financial performance of family firms in
comparison to their counterparts. In the next section, we mention the possible
reasons for this performance and the ways to overcome the issues faced by family
firms. Lastly, we discuss some examples from Indian family businesses that
incorporated the required changes in their business patterns and rose to new
heights.

Literature Review
A report by The World Federation of Exchanges on family firms states that family
firms dominate the business landscape across both developed and developing
economies. They account for over 50 per cent of GDP and employment in many
markets and range from micro-enterprises to some of the biggest listed companies
in the entire world. As a significant organizational mode, family businesses cover
over two-thirds of businesses in East Asian nations (Claessens et al., 2000),
around 44 per cent of the big businesses in Western Europe (Faccio & Lang, 2002)
Chahal and Sharma 11

and one-third of the Standard & Poor 500 index companies in the United States
(Anderson & Reeb, 2003).
Family businesses form a considerable and crucial segment of the US economy
as they contribute to 62 per cent of total labour, devote 64 per cent of the GDP and
produce 78 per cent of new job creation (Astrachan & Shanker, 2003). As such,
some studies have estimated that around 80–90 per cent of the US firms are family
controlled (Morris et al., 1997). Different studies suggest that throughout Europe
depending on the country, family businesses represent anywhere from 55–90 per
cent of businesses. According to the European Family Businesses (2018) study,
family businesses are the essence of the European economy, with more than 14
million businesses employing over 60 million people in the private sector and EU
family businesses represent a turnover of more than one trillion Euros, over 9 per
cent of the European GDP.
Family businesses are quite prominent in Asia also, particularly amongst the
larger firms and a lot of them have progressed into conglomerates consisting of
several independent firms (Dieleman et al., 2013). Family businesses in China
represent over 90 per cent of the total non-public owned enterprises and these
firms contribute about 60 per cent to the GDP (Lv, 2007). Seven out of the ten
oldest companies in the world are from Japan and it has the highest concentration
of old family businesses by any measure such as GDP, population and landmass
(Schwartz & Bergfeld, 2017). Deloitte research (2013) reports that family firms
constitute 85 per cent of total companies in India and also contribute an ample
share of employment and domestic output. A Business Today article as quoted in
this Deloitte research report states that family businesses contribute to 18 per cent
of India Inc’s assets, 25 per cent of sales, 37 per cent of reserves and 32 per cent
of profits after tax.

Family Involvement in Business and its Financial Performance

The literature on family businesses consists of several studies in different countries
that evaluate the relationship between the involvement of a family in business and
the firm’s financial performance (Anderson & Reeb, 2003; Chrisman et al., 2004;
Garcia-Castro & Aguilera, 2014; O’Boyle Jr. et al., 2012). The results of earlier
studies on this association have been mixed, with researchers finding neutral,
positive and negative relationships (Dyer, 2006; Lubatkin et al., 2003; Mazzi,
2011; Rutherford et al., 2008). Studies advocating the positive association show
that family firms, in general, perform better than non-family firms because of the
reduction in the agency costs (Jayaraman et al., 2000) and willingness of family
firms to commit to long investment time horizons as they think of the next
generation rather than the next quarter (Anderson & Reeb, 2003; James, 1999).
Supporters of the negative link between family involvement in business and
financial performance postulate that non-family firms perform better than family
firms because family firms are exposed to managerial entrenchment, managed
unprofessionally and practice nepotism (Morck & Yeung, 2003; Schulze et al.,
2003). Studies have reported the family involvement in business majorly through
ownership and management.
12 Journal of New Business Ventures 1(1–2)

Impact of Family Ownership and Control on Firm Performance

The question that whether family businesses are better performers has given rise to
varying viewpoints and is an important topic of discussion and research. Given that,
the basic proposition of the studies on family firms is that shareholding patterns, in
particular promoter holdings, do influence financial performance and the studies
have shown both the positive and negative impact on performance. A positive and
significant relationship of the family ownership and control with the firm perfor-
mance has been commonly reported in numerous studies on listed companies
(Anderson & Reeb, 2003; Andres, 2008; Bertrand et al., 2008; Sraer & Thesmar,
2007; Singh & Gaur, 2009). However, because of the diverse definitions used for
family firms in different analyses, these findings could be somewhat biased.
Lee (2004) in his study on US family firms stated that family ownership
promotes a high return on investment by enhancing cost efficiency. Maury (2006)
in his sample of firms from 13 Western European countries, reported that family
ownership and control is associated with higher profitability. Barontini and Caprio
(2006) in their study on a sample of firms from 11 Continental European Countries,
concluded that family control has quite a positive impact on European corporations.
Allouche et al. (2008) in their study on Japanese family firms reported that family
ownership and control strongly influence performance in terms of profitability.
Achmad et al. (2008) in their study on Indonesian firms stated that ownership type
has a direct impact on their economic performance and family firms have lower
profits as compared to firms with a diversified ownership structure. Cheng (2014)
in his study on Chinese family firms stated that they have a high level of ownership
concentration and have better performance in comparison to non-family firms,
higher growth potential and are smaller. Badrul Muttakin et al. (2014) in their
study on a sample of Bangladeshi family firms concluded that family ownership
has a positive influence on firm performance. Thus, it has been observed that
results are mixed varying from country to country
Impact of Family Involvement in Management on Firm Performance
The role of family members in the management and their impact on the firm’s
performance shows intricate and mixed results. Some studies show that listed
firms managed by family members as CEOs have a positive relationship with a
firm’s financial performance (Anderson & Reeb, 2003; McConaughy et al., 1998).
Villalonga and Amit (2006) confirm that in a family firm when the founder func-
tions as the CEO or as the Chairman with a non-family CEO, then the family
firm’s value is bound to increase with the presence of family management. On the
other hand, if descendants serve as Chairman or CEO, then it diminishes the
firm’s value. Cucculelli and Micucci (2008) in a sample of Italian firms concluded
that there is a negative impact on a firm’s performance due to maintaining man-
agement within the family and that the firm’s performance with founder-CEO is
better than after succession by the founder’s heirs. Poutziouris et al. (2015) in a
study on UK companies conclude that the presence of family persons in manage-
ment appreciates the family firms’ performance across the generations. The role
of outsiders, that is, the function of a hired professional CEO is again disputed, as
it showed either an insignificant (Andres, 2008; Barontini & Caprio, 2006) or a
Chahal and Sharma 13

positive (Anderson & Reeb, 2003) association with the market performance.
Subekti and Sumargo (2015) in a sample of Indonesian firms stated that family
management negatively impacts a firm’s performance as a lot of family firms are
managed by family members who are opportunistic and inefficient. Gill and Kaur
(2015) in their sample of Indian family firms documented that family involve-
ment in management is associated with higher financial performance. On the
other hand, Bhatt and Bhattacharya (2017) on his sample of India firms stated that
family management is irrelevant to the firm value and performance. Thus, differ-
ent studies are giving a mix of results.

Comparison of the Performance of Family Firms and Non-Family Firms

Family businesses have been a discipline of academic research for a significant
period in various countries. Some of these studies focus on the concerns and dis-
advantages that family businesses face when compared to businesses where
control and equity are held in a more diversified pattern (Claessens et al., 2002;
Morck & Yeung, 2003). Also, several studies that focus on family firms perform
better when compared to non-family firms (Chakrabarty, 2009; McConaughy
et al., 2001). Their lower agency costs, long-term commitment to the business,
farsighted investment, shared family aspirations and values and better social rela-
tionships and corporate culture make them more prompt than non-family firms
(Ceja et al., 2010; Davis et al., 2000; Weber et al., 2003).
Finally, some studies put forth no significant distinction between the family
and non-family firms (Chrisman et al., 2004). Pieces of evidence from the United
States, Germany, France, United Kingdom, China and Japan confirm that family
firms are better on both accounting and market performance measures (Anderson
& Reeb, 2003; Andres, 2008; Cheng, 2014; Ansari et al., 2014; Maury, 2006;
Mehrotra et al., 2013). In the Indian context, there is less empirical and more
descriptive research on the comparison of the family and non-family firms’
performance.

Family-Owned Businesses in India

Literature review shows that studies on family-run businesses’ performance
appear to be quite scarce in India. This is rather startling given the extensiveness
of such businesses in India. The Deloitte Research Report (2013) states that family
firms constitute 85 per cent of total companies in India and also contribute an
ample share of employment and domestic output. There have been few studies of
the Indian family businesses and business families (Dwivedi & Jain, 2005; Parikh,
2001; Ramachandran, 2006; Rastogi & Agrawal, 2010; Sharma & Rao, 2000).
Furthermore, there are limited studies on Indian family firms and their performance
(Chittoor & Das, 2007; Gill & Kaur, 2015). Ramachandran (2006) highlights that
in India study of family-owned businesses remains a black box and substantially
not much is known either about the factors leading to successful continuity of
14 Journal of New Business Ventures 1(1–2)

family firms in India or their survival rate. It has been observed that most studies
on Indian family-controlled firms tended to focus on non-financial parameters
and characteristics, with relatively lesser attention to financial data.
Indian history has been presided over by family business groups since
Independence in 1947. In the formal sector, Indian families possessed the majority
of the Indian manufacturing at the time of Independence and these families had
nurtured their companies—for example, Birla, Tata, Thapar, Sahu Jain and
Shingania Families (Ray, 1979). After independence, the Indian government took
a socialist stand on investment, and the Industrial Policy Resolutions of 1948 and
1956 reserved a lot of industries for the state sector (Manikutty, 2000).
The extent of activities for the private sector was restricted by the government
by imposing high import quotas, high duties and licenses, making imports highly
expensive (Jalan, 1996). In 1969, monopoly legislation further interrupted exten-
sion of capacities, and also restraints were introduced on foreign investments
(Dandekar, 1992). Further, in the 1970s, private-owned enterprises majority of
which were family controlled at that time, were put through retrogressive policies
to restrain expansion of private wealth (Bhattacharyya, 2007).
Manikutty (2000) points that the period between 1970 and 1990 rendered the
Indian enterprises inefficient and unfit for global standards. In 1991, the opening
of the Indian economy and reduction of government control, license, quotas,
duties and restrictions on FDI to a very low level, lead to an escalation in the level
of foreign investments, imports and, competition for Indian firms. Thus, the
Indian family businesses faced a new environment and the family businesses that
were proactive and flexible in their approach were able to survive and flourish in
the new business environment in India whereas others were not able to withstand
the pressure of the newly created freedom and failed.
Distinct Characteristics
As per Piramal (1996) and Bhattacharyya (2007), family-owned businesses in
India have the following features which distinguish them from other family
businesses worldwide:

1. Family relationships play very high importance in determining the position

a person holds in the business.
2. The predominance of few castes which are the connotation for family-
owned businesses in India (Aggarwals, Guptas, Chettiars, Jains, Parsees
and Marwaris).
3. All members in the business follow a presiding culture pursued by the
caste to which they belong.
4. Family, relatives and extended family have a strong feeling of trust and
sincerity to the family that naturally construe as trust and sincerity to the
business.
5. Higher positions are more likely to be held by sons and male relatives and
in succession, as compared to the female relatives.
The Challenges Faced by Family Businesses in India
1. Chauhan (2017) states ‘concerns about Indian family businesses include
a culture of controlling business by intuition rather than facts and
Chahal and Sharma 15

professionalization, the lack of separation between ownership and

management and the resulting consequence on governance, structure, and
organization’.
2. Bhattacharyya (2007) lists some challenges faced by Indian family firms
including non-participative family members, family emotions, family
orientation overriding business orientation, difficulty in defining authority
levels of young family members, fair-to-all approach, inability to retain
non-family professionals and lack of succession planning.
3. Chakrabarty (2009) underline a problem with the Indian family firms in
the context of division of value and assets from the company to the owner
by forming significant pyramid structures and carrying out tunnelling
activity that transfers cash flow and value from minority to controlling
shareholders.
4. Pawar (2009) highlights family conflicts that lead to a high rate of failure
as a major issue amongst Indian family firms. He states that India has a
very small survival rate of 13 per cent to the third generation and beyond
it, the survival rate is just 4 per cent.
5. Ramachandran and Bhatnagar (2012) state that Indian family firms face
five major challenges namely, leadership, succession planning, managing
family relations, family wealth management and professionalization.

Rationale and Scope of the Study

Currently, family businesses are fairly prevalent in India and play a prominent
role in the country’s business scenario. These Indian family businesses are not
only sole proprietorships and small to medium-sized firms; instead, they include
a large number of publicly listed companies as well. Given their prevalence in the
county, their importance to the economy, their bearing on key management
theories, as well as the lack of prior empirical research in this area, this particular
study on the comparative performance of Indian family businesses has the
potential to not only make a significant contribution towards understanding this
phenomenon, but also point out the way to conduct more detailed research on
Indian family businesses. This study is based on companies listed in NSE 500
Index for the period 2014–2018.

Objectives of the Study

It has been observed that research on Indian family businesses, particularly on their
financial performance, does not appear to be entirely commensurate with the
prevalence of family business in India and their importance and impact on the
Indian economy and business scenario. The objectives of this paper are: (a) to study
how family firms are performing in India in comparison to their non-family
counterparts; (b) to discuss the possible reasons for this performance and the ways
16 Journal of New Business Ventures 1(1–2)

to overcome the issues faced by family firms and (c) lastly, we discuss the learnings
that new business ventures can take from Indian family businesses that incorporated
the required changes in their business patterns and rose to new heights.

Data and Research Methodology

Defining a Family Business for the Study

The literature on family business consists of numerous definitions of what
comprises a family business. Broadly, a family business is defined to be one that
is owned, controlled and sometimes managed by one or more family members.
In the context of academic literature and research, family businesses definitions
with empirical focus specifying practical norms to measure family business
characteristics, particularly those with impact on the relationship between
ownership and family performance are introduced by authors like Anderson and
Reeb (2003), La Porta et al. (1999), Villalonga and Amit (2006), etc.
A lot of articles on family businesses in the US and other western countries, in
general, define family firms as a public corporation where family members own
the firm and its CEOs are either the founder or his family members (Andres, 2008;
Chrisman et al., 2004; Lee, 2004; McConaughy et al., 2001; Westhead & Howorth,
2006). In Asian studies, family firms are commonly defined to be the ones where
the founding family is the biggest shareholder or the companies that are part of a
family business group (Claessens et al., 2000; Faccio et al., 2001). It is clear that
the literature on family business is quite broad and comprehensive and it is hard
to find unanimity on the precise definition of a family firm.
For this study, we have taken the definition of a family firm as used by Anderson
and Reeb (2003) and Gill and Kaur (2015) in their study on Indian family firms.
We identify a family firm to be the one where at least 10 per cent of the outstanding
shares of the company are held by the founder and their descendent family
members either directly or indirectly, through another family firm or fund which
the family controls or owns and; the CEO or the Chairman of the company is a
founder or his descendant.

Sampling
For this study, the sample includes companies comprising of the NSE 500 Index
as of 31 March 2018 for a period of 5 years from 2014 to 2018. Firstly, we have
excluded all the financial and banking companies for our sample as they are
administered by the Banking Regulation Act, 1919, and the RBI Act, 1934. Also,
it is difficult to calculate Tobin’s q (TQ) for such companies. Secondly, public
sector firms are excluded as several social obligations influence their performance.
Thirdly, the companies that had missing data for the period of study were excluded.
Finally, we have a sample size of 302 companies, accounting for 1,510 firm-year
Chahal and Sharma 17

observations. The total list of 302 companies grouped by the two-digit National
Industrial Classification (NIC) code is presented in the Appendix. Family firms
constitute 63 per cent of the NIC codes in our sample, implying that they operate
in a wide spectrum of industries.
The data for companies was drawn from a corporate database (Prowess), the
companies’ annual reports, the reports filed by the companies with the NSE,
individual company websites and other such sources.

Variables
Prior literature on family businesses identifies two different measures of financial
performance, that is, market-based measures and accounting-based measures of
performances. Therefore, the current study recognizes both TQ and Return on
Assets (ROA) as the essential financial performance measures. Anderson and
Reeb (2003) state that the full measure of profit on the company’s total assets is
given by both earnings before interest tax and depreciation (EBITDA) and net
income (NI). Accordingly, EBITDA scaled by total assets is calculated to indicate
the operating performance of the firms and NI divided by total assets represents
the efficiency of the management in generating returns by using its assets. Market
performance is measured by TQ which is calculated as the market value of the
firm scaled by total assets. These measures have been largely applied in similar
studies, for example, by Anderson and Reeb (2003), Gill and Kaur (2015), Khanna
and Palepu (2000), McConaughy et al. (1998), etc.
Several control variables were introduced in the study to control for various
firm and industry characteristics. We derive the control variables used in our study
through prior literature review (Anderson & Reeb, 2003; Gill & Kaur, 2015;
Mazzi, 2011) and are as follows:
Age—the number of years since the firms’ incorporation; Size—book value of
total assets; Leverage—calculated as long-term debt divided by total assets;
Growth opportunities—measured as research and development expenses divided
by total sales; Asset tangibility—computed as the ratio of (net) tangible assets to
total assets; Risk (Beta)—a measure of stock’s volatility relative to the market;
Board size—total number of directors on board; Board Independence (BoardIn)—
the percentage of independent outside directors on board.
The univariate analysis is done to give descriptive information for the whole
sample of companies. It gives information for all the key variables by providing
mean, standard deviation, minimum and maximum values. To test the performance
of family firms over non-family firms, we applied the difference of means tests
between the performance indicators and other variables of the two groups.

Data Analysis and Findings

Table 1 demonstrates three panels with detailed results for our sample firms. Panel
A gives the maximum, minimum, means, medians and standard deviations for the
18 Journal of New Business Ventures 1(1–2)

Table 1.  Descriptive Data for Family and Non-Family Companies

Panel A: Summary Statistics for the Full Sample

Mean Median Std. Dev. Minimum Maximum
ROA (EBITDA)(%) 16.258 14.573 10.844 –57.676s 132.645
ROA (NI)(%) 7.846 6.569 8.519 –75.178 95.582
Tobin’s Q 3.918 2.976 3.588 1.024 70.617
Size (in Rs. Million) 115,677.2 34623.3 346,476.2 1673 61,83,670
Age (in Years) 40.562 32 24.331 4 155
Leverage (%) 15.171 10.640 13.705 0 65.646
Asset tangibility (%) 23.412 21.253 16.433 0.017 77.699
BETA 1.047 0.98 0.451 0.14 2.64
Growth (%) 1.426 0.054 12.665 0 19.752
Board size (no.) 10.602 10 2.895 4 25
Board independence (%) 51.204 50 10.305 17.647 84.615
Panel B: Difference of Means Test
Family Firms Non-Family Firms t-statistics
ROA (EBITDA) 16.15 16.44 0.491
ROA (NI) 7.91 7.74 0.359
Tobin’s Q 3.79 4.14 1.909
Age 38.64 43.82 4.078
Size (Rs. Million) 107,187.79 130078.9 1.038
Leverage 15.33 14.91 0.558
Growth 2.02 0.41 3.108
Risk 1.075 0.997 3.255
Asset tangibility 23.90 22.58 1.488
Board size 10.47 10.83 2.268
Board independence 53.07 47.988 8.851
No. of Firms 190 112
Source: Authors’ calculation.

key variables. The univariate test on the whole sample indicates that in terms of
performance, the mean ROA based on EBITDA (NI) of an average company in
the sample is 16.26 per cent (7.85 per cent). The market measure as given by TQ
shows a mean value of 3.92. The sample companies had an average age of 40.5
years, indicating that they are quite well established. The size of companies ranged
from as low as Rs. 1,673 million to as high as Rs. 61,83,670 million. In the sample,
an average company had the mean leverage of 15.17 per cent and it varied from
some companies having zero leverage to as high as almost 66 per cent. On average,
companies had R&D expenses to sales ratio of 1.43 per cent with some companies
not spending anything on such expenses whereas others spending huge amounts
through borrowings or other measures. The companies had a tangibility of 23 per
cent on average. The beta of an average company is 1.04 suggesting them to be a
little more volatile than the market. The board characteristics data shows that the
companies on average have a board size of nearly 10 members with 51 per cent of
the total number of directors being the independent directors.
Chahal and Sharma 19

Panel B shows the difference of means tests for variables between family and
non-family firms. For performance indicators, non-family firms showed better
performance than family firms while considering the market measure of
performance, that is, TQ. On the other hand, there was no significant difference in
the valuation of family and non-family firms when we consider accounting
measures of performance, that is, ROA based on EBITDA and NI. The possible
reasons for this are discussed in the section below. When we talk about age, family
firms are relatively younger than non-family firms with higher leverage, risk,
growth opportunities and asset tangibility. Board size is almost similar for family
and non-family firms, but family firms have more number of independent directors
on the board than their counterparts.

Reasons for Family Firms Lagging and Ways to Cope up

The above section shows that despite the prevalence and significance of family
firms in the Indian economy, they do not seem to be performing better than
their non-family counterparts. This could be due to a variety of reasons. The
advantageous position of a family in the business can have certain repercussions
for the business. For instance, family businesses can suffer when there are several
hostile family stockholders whose votes enable them to cancel one another’s
initiatives (Claessens et al., 2002). With the passing of generations, the potential
for conflict amongst the controlling family increase because of the increase in the
number of relatives (Schulze et al., 2003). Family conflicts can lead to a high rate
of failure amongst family businesses and are the reason why a lot of family
businesses are not able to continue their operations beyond two–three generations.
In some family businesses, the controlling family enjoys a disproportionate share
of control as compared to its actual ownership of stock. This can happen if there
are special types of shares that provide control with little ownership or by the use
of holding companies for pyramiding purposes (Morck & Yeung, 2003).
Therefore, it becomes imperative to discuss the possible reasons for family
firms lagging in India and measures to overcome them and improve their
performance. Bhattacharyya (2007) and Ramachandran and Bhatnagar (2012)
have discussed the challenges faced by the Indian family businesses at length.
Some of the most important reasons have been discussed below:
Focus Reasons Measures
Economic returns Economic returns are the main focus for non- Family owners should understand that emphasizing more on
family firms, whereas family firms are majorly socioemotional aspects may hamper their judgment regarding new
driven by several socioemotional goals such as technology adoption by the company and influence its competitive
safeguarding social and family ties, continuity advantage. They should try to maintain a balance in their focus on
of family control, emotional attachment to the economic returns and socioemotional goals.
business and protection of their family identity.
Innovation and Innovation and technology are regarded as a It has been observed that family businesses prioritize long-term
technology major challenge by some family business growth over innovation. They should recognize that family businesses
leaders and is a hindrance to the growth of that flourish and evolve across multiple generations are the ones
a family firm. Existing technology is rendered that do not fear diversification, do not resist change and expand
to be obsolete because of the continuous their business. Family members should focus on keeping the
advancement in technology. Not all entrepreneurial zeal intact in the business.
generations in a family may have the same
entrepreneurial zeal as the founder and this
may lead to a decline in business as it is passed
on to future generations.
Professionalization Family businesses are regarded as tending to Family businesses in India need to formalize their organization with
have a lack of professional management since well-defined rules and roles. For a business to grow they need to
the tendency is for the management to consist have hiring strategies, pay policies and promotion guidelines, distinct
of members of the controlling family. This roles for people and should stick with these policies and guidelines.
certainly restricts the available management Business families should understand and accept the fact that they
talent pool, with adverse consequences for the cannot have within the family all the expertise and proficiency needed
firm’s performance. to operate and run a modern business.
Treatment of outsiders Outside professionals may feel that they will Family members must accept responsibility for their actions or the
not be able to enjoy the same freedom in a lack of them and must be held accountable for them to minimize the
family business as offered by other businesses probability of resentment within the firm. To create an environment
and therefore, could be hesitant to join the wherein non-family professionals are motivated to give their best,
family business and also top positions being family and non-family members should be treated alike in business.
held by family members act as a hindrance.
Succession planning Another issue for family businesses is the lack Families should underline the importance of timely grooming of the
of succession planning and preparing the future future generations and they should be unbiased in examining various
generation of leaders for the business. Many succession options. Family leaders must formulate a well-defined
of the family business leaders are reluctant to family constitution with details of succession plans well before they
pass on the baton to the next generation and even need it.
therefore do not have a robust
and documented succession plan in place.
Family conflicts Diverse views of different family members To avoid and resolve conflicts within the family and the business,
on a subject matter could lead to conflicts family members should keep the lines of communication open and
and delayed decision making. Sibling rivalries, have regular strategic and in-depth discussions related to business.
managing succession, older generation making Some family businesses believe that they can improve decision-making
efforts to retain control, induction of next- by having clearly defined roles amongst themselves while others feel
generation into business, introduction of that decisions should be based on collective inputs.
daughters and wives to the family business,
preferential treatment notion amongst family
members, navigating emotions within the
family, identification and acknowledgment of
meritocracy are some of the reasons that may
lead to conflicts in a family business.
Source: The authors.
22 Journal of New Business Ventures 1(1–2)

Implications of the Study and Lessons for New

Business Ventures
It has been already observed that family businesses play an important role in the
growth of the Indian economy. Although the literature also points out that most of
the family businesses across the globe are not able to get through the third
generation for a range of reasons. Therefore, this study on the performance and
challenges faced by these businesses becomes imperative to give a glimpse of the
Indian family business scenario and further identify the steps to be taken to ensure
that they survive beyond three generations.
Given the importance of family firms in India, this study compares the perfor-
mance of family and non-family firms in the Indian context. As discussed in the
paper, family firms have certain unique characteristics and challenges, therefore,
this comparison is significant as it provides a snapshot for the new entrepreneurs
to help them decide the kind of organizational structure they want to have for their
new business venture as they grow. The findings of the study show that family
firms do not seem to be performing particularly better than their non-family coun-
terparts. But, it should be noted that the results of studies on the comparison of
family and non-family firms can be influenced by a variety of factors, viz., the
definition of a ‘family firm’ used to study the comparison, whether the study is
based on private or public firms, firm size, the performance variables used, the
culture of the country in the study, etc. The current study does not take into con-
sideration all such factors and this provides scope for further research on the topic.
Further, the literature on family business mostly focusses on the challenges
that family businesses experience when compared to businesses where control
and equity are held in a more diversified pattern. The current study makes an
attempt to highlight the measures that such forms of business organizations need
to adapt to overcome these challenges. This might help in providing certain
learnings for new business ventures. In this section, we have discussed the lessons
that some Indian family firms can offer to the new business ventures by setting an
example in successfully managing the issues faced by a family firm and made a
mark in the Indian and the world business scenario. These business houses have
set a standard and shown a path to other business families to learn from them and
grow their business across generations.

1. The success of a family business is a result of their entrepreneurial, zealous

and ambitious mindset which gives robust profits even amid economic
disruptions. Family firms can survive and prosper over a long period
because of their long-term attitude on investments and profits along with
solid entrepreneurial drive and flair for innovation. An example is Apollo
Hospitals, founded in the 1980s by Dr P. C. Reddy, that has constructed a
substantial competitive advantage through technological advancement.
They have an innovation division that nurtures new ideas and the
employees are working hard with innovation labs in the United States,
Israel and India to keep up with the new developments around the world.
This has enabled them to reach out to many more people and grow
Chahal and Sharma 23

successfully. New business ventures can learn from such successful family
firms and incorporate the culture of resilience, entrepreneurial flair,
innovativeness and strong commitment.
2. A number of family businesses in India do not last past two–three
generations. The main reason for this is the lack of proper succession
planning and family governance in place. A family can ensure the
continuity of its business across generations with proper governance
mechanisms in the family. The famous feud between the Ambani brothers
for control led to other families into thinking about making their family
constitution in time. Following this, the GMR group, established in 1978,
and one of the most diversified infrastructure organizations in the nation
created a detailed succession plan, code of conduct and rules for entry and
exit of every family member into the business. This gives learning to the
new family business ventures to have proper succession and governance
mechanisms in place by having a visionary leadership and efficient
management.
3. Accommodating outside professional management in family firms is quite
challenging because the tendency is for the management to consist of
members of the controlling family. This certainly restricts the available
management talent pool, with adverse consequences for the firm’s
performance. After a century of successfully running and managing Dabur
Ltd., the Burmans had realized that the complexities in managing the
family were rising since it had grown in size. The family members then
realized the need to professionalize the management for Dabur to grow
rapidly. They understood that it was necessary to keep the top positions
vacant to attract the best managerial talent. Two decades after the family
decided to professionalize their business, it is growing exponentially and
the family is undivided. From such examples of successful businesses,
new family firms can learn to be adaptive according to the needs of the
enterprise and stay professional in their functioning.

Conclusion
The presence of family businesses amongst the business organizations in the
world is at significant levels. A variety of viewpoints have been presented by the
existing literature about family-run businesses’ performance in comparison to
their counterparts. These vary from family businesses being better performers to
the contrasting results of them underperforming and facing challenges as
compared to their non-family peers.
Family businesses evidently play a powerful role in the Indian business
scenario and the Indian economy. The literature also highlights the status of family
businesses in India since independence, some unique features of Indian family
businesses, and the challenges faced by them as underlined in previous studies. In
this paper, we attempt to find out whether or not family firms perform better than
non-family firms in the Indian context given their prevalence and importance for
24 Journal of New Business Ventures 1(1–2)

the economy. We studied the companies included in the NSE 500 Index for the
period 2014–2018. The results show that in the Indian context there seems to be
no significant difference in the performance of family and non-family firms when
we consider accounting-based measures of performance, whereas non-family
firms seem to be performing better when we consider the market-based measure
of performance. We have mentioned the possible reasons for this performance and
the ways to overcome the issues faced by family firms. Lastly, we discuss the
advice and recommendations that the new business ventures can take from already
established successful family businesses.
However, it must be noted that the implementation of the advice given to
family-run businesses on how to conquer their shortcomings and strive to be
world players might not be easy. This is because family values, customs and
traditions are deep-rooted in family firms. They find it challenging to undo what
is familiar to them and make changes in their business patterns and traditions.
There are some business families in the country that did not achieve the required
results by separating ownership from management and were forced to return to
the older order as the separation led to a decline in family fortunes. Such things
make other business families also apprehensive of such changes. The question
regarding what is best for the Indian family businesses continues.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research,
authorship and/or publication of this article.

Funding
The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication
of this article.
Appendix 1. Two-Digit NIC Codes

NIC Code Industry Description Total Family Firm Non-Family Firm % of FFs
10 Manufacture of food products 10 7 3 70
11 Manufacture of beverages 4 1 3 25
12 Manufacture of tobacco products 3 1 2 33.33
13 Manufacture of textiles 7 6 1 85.71
14 Manufacture of wearing apparel 3 2 1 66.67
15 Manufacture of leather and related products 1 1 0 100
16 Manufacture of wood and products of wood and cork, except furniture; 3 2 1 66.67
manufacture of articles of straw and plaiting materials
17 Manufacture of paper and paper products 1 0 1 0
19 Manufacture of coke and refined petroleum products 2 0 2 0
20 Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products 30 21 9 70
21 Manufacture of pharmaceuticals, medicinal chemical and botanical products 28 21 7 75
22 Manufacture of rubber and plastics products 15 8 7 53.33
23 Manufacture of other non-metallic mineral products Manufacture of 16 7 9 43.75
basic metals
24 Manufacture of basic metals 13 10 3 76.92
25 Manufacture of fabricated metal products, except machinery and equipment 3 0 3 0
27 Manufacture of electrical equipment 11 6 5 54.55
28 Manufacture of machinery and equipment n.e.c 17 8 9 47.06
29 Manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers 12 7 5 58.33
30 Manufacture of other transport equipment Other manufacturing 4 4 0 100
32 Other manufacturing 3 3 0 100
34 Metal products and parts, except machinery and equipment 8 7 1 87.5
35 Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply 4 4 0 100
41 Construction of buildings 9 7 2 77.78
42 Civil engineering 14 7 7 50
(Appendix 1 continued)
(Appendix 1 continued)

NIC Code Industry Description Total Family Firm Non-Family Firm % of FFs
46 Wholesale trade, except of motor vehicles and motorcycles 11 7 4 63.64
47 Retail trade, except of motor vehicles and motorcycles 6 5 1 83.33
50 Water transport 1 1 0 100
51 Air transport 1 0 1 0
52 Warehousing and support activities for transportation 6 2 4 33.33
55 Accommodation 3 3 0 100
58 Publishing activities 2 2 0 100
59 Motion picture, video and television programme production, sound recording 2 2 0 100
and music publishing activities
60 Broadcasting and programming activities 4 3 1 75
61 Telecommunications 6 3 3 50
62 Computer programming, consultancy and related activities 16 9 7 56.25
63 Information service activities 2 1 1 50
64 Financial service activities, except insurance and pension funding 8 6 2 75
70 Activities of head offices; management consultancy activities 5 2 3 40
72 Scientific research and development 1 1 0 100
73 Advertising and market research 1 0 1 0
77 Rental and leasing activities 1 1 0 100
79 Travel agency, tour operator and other reservation service activities 2 0 2 0
86 Human health activities 2 1 1 50
93 Sports activities and amusement and recreation activities 1 1 0 100
Total 302 190 112
Source: Authors’ calculation.
Chahal and Sharma 27

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