TY - JOUR
T1 - Carrying on the family's legacy : male heirs and firm innovation
AU - Chen, Shu
AU - Ying, Sammy Xiaoyan
AU - Wu, Huiying
AU - You, Jiaxing
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - We predict that entrepreneurs are more likely to have a long-term orientation to their decision making if they have male heirs, because traditionally sons, not daughters, have been expected to carry on the family business. Our results support this prediction. Specifically, we find that when entrepreneurs have at least one son, have more sons, and have a firstborn son, their firms are more innovative. The results are robust to a battery of robustness tests, including alternative measures of innovation, instrumental variable approach, and Heckman two-step correction for selection bias. Our further analyses show that the positive association between male heirs and firm innovation is stronger for entrepreneurs with a greater son preference and is weaker for entrepreneurs who more impacted by the one-child policy.
AB - We predict that entrepreneurs are more likely to have a long-term orientation to their decision making if they have male heirs, because traditionally sons, not daughters, have been expected to carry on the family business. Our results support this prediction. Specifically, we find that when entrepreneurs have at least one son, have more sons, and have a firstborn son, their firms are more innovative. The results are robust to a battery of robustness tests, including alternative measures of innovation, instrumental variable approach, and Heckman two-step correction for selection bias. Our further analyses show that the positive association between male heirs and firm innovation is stronger for entrepreneurs with a greater son preference and is weaker for entrepreneurs who more impacted by the one-child policy.
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/1959.7/uws:59984
M3 - Article
SN - 0929-1199
VL - 69
JO - Journal of Corporate Finance
JF - Journal of Corporate Finance
M1 - 101976
ER -