Leave the Family Firm Before You Lead It

Published 30 July 2026 by Charlotte Ostergaard, Irena Kustec and Amir Sasson from a paper presented at the 4th Baltic Family Firm Institute and ECGI Conference, analysing approximately 2,400 CEO successions in Norwegian family-controlled firms over 2005 to 2016 using comprehensive administrative data and a stacked difference-in-differences design on operating return on assets and return on assets. Around 67 per cent of successions involve family members and nearly three quarters of those are inside successors, defined as family members who worked in the business or sat on its board for at least three years beforehand; at least 45 per cent of inside successors have never held a full-time job outside the family firm. Firms led by outside family successors improve profitability after succession while firms led by inside successors stagnate or decline, and outside family successors perform as well as or better than unrelated professional CEOs.