Agency conflicts in publicly traded family businesses and the composition of the Board of Directors

Abstract

The aim of the study is to analyze the influence of agency conflicts arising from ownership structure on the presence of non-family members on the Board of Directors of Brazilian family companies. The sample consisted of 145 publicly traded family businesses. The data were collected in the Reference Forms released by the companies of the year 2018. Linear regression with the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) method and logistics was used as a data analysis procedure. The results indicate that there is a negative relationship between the principal-principal conflict and the presence of non-family members on the Board of Directors and a positive relationship between the family blockholder conflict and the presence of non-family members on the Board of Directors. This study implies evidence that the composition of the Board of Directors is influenced by agency conflicts related to the ownership structure of family businesses.

Keywords

• conflitos de agência
• empresas familiares
• composição conselho de administração