* Bruno AMANN (Professor in Management Sciences at the University Paul Sabatier of Toulouse)
* Jacques JAUSSAUD (Professor in Management Sciences at the University of Pau)
As widely documented in academic literature, family businesses perform better and enjoy a sounder financial structure than non-family businesses, a trend that applies to Japan as well. Therefore, conventional wisdom suggests that family businesses should recover better or more easily from an economic downturn and persist in their stronger performance. This study tests that hypothesis, especially in reference to the current global economic crisis, by drawing lessons from the Asian crisis of 1997, for which relevant data are available. The test pertains specifically to the case of Japanese family and non-family companies, using a matched pair methodology, which allows for strong controls of size and industry variables. According to the results, family businesses achieve stronger resilience both during and after an economic crisis, compared with nonfamily businesses. They resist the downturn better, recover faster, and continue exhibiting higher performance and stronger financial structures over time.
