Opening the Black Box: Case Study Evidence on the Goals and Control of Family Offices

Abstract

Using a combined agency and stewardship perspective, this study examines the goals that families behind family offices pursue and the control mechanisms that are imposed to ensure achievement of these goals. Drawing on case evidence of 21 family offices, I test propositions developed ex ante. Furthermore, applying an inductive logic, I identify dimensions that influence a family’s goal orientation and reliance on control mechanisms. By establishing linkages between the FO and the family business, I show that contingent on a family’s involvement in the family business the FO may either act as a social subsystem of the family business or evolve into an independent social system. In addition, I identify direct family involvement as an antecedent enabling a family’s non-financial goal orientation and the emergence of social control.