Family Ownership and firm Performance in Canada

This paper analyzes the relationship between family firm ownership and the firm value, as measured by Tobin's q, and firm profitability, as measured by return on assets, for a sample of 251 Canadian firms. The results indicate that family firm ownership does not have an effect on the firm's value. The results also indicate that Canadian family firms are not more profitable that non-family owned firms. The results of this paper vary from those of similar U.S. family firms published by Anderson and Reeb (2003). Anderson and Reeb (2003) concluded that family firms are more profitable and are more valuable than non family firms in the U.S..