Abstract

The aim of the paper is to investigate the influence of the family nature of the firm on the time to going public and, overcoming the dichotomy between family and non-family firms, addressing the family firms heterogeneity in terms of CEO characteristics. Grounding our regression analyses on a sample of IPO firms went public in Italy from 2000 to 2020, our paper offers theoretical contributions and has practical implications. Findings demonstrate the existence of a positive relationship between family firm status and IPO timing, corroborating previous research claiming that the family influences IPO features. Moreover, empirical results point out that while CEO age increases the time to IPO in family firms, when the CEO is also the company founder, family firms go public earlier. This evidence supports literature advocating that age and founder status matter in shaping family decision making process.

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