* Family Influence on Earnings Smoothing: Ownership, Supervision, Management

• In Event: Ownership Structure

Abstract

We examine how family involvement affects the earnings smoothing of German firms. We base our work on data for stock-listed firms in the period from 2005 to 2011. We find that German family firms engage in more intensive earnings smoothing than non-family firms. For family firms, we find that higher intensities of family involvement are associated with higher extents of earnings smoothing. The earnings smoothing of German family firms increases from pure family ownership to family supervision to family management to family supervision and management. Our results are robust to several additional tests.

Authors

• Stefanie Kaiser, WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management

• Martin Glaum, WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management, Germany