The impact of family ownership and capital structures on productivity performance of Korean manufacturing firms: Corporate governance and the “chaebol problem”

This paper examines the relationship between corporate governance and productivity performance, focusing on family ownership and capital structure. Paying particular attention to chaebols, or large business groups with entrenched family control, diversified business structure, and heavy debt-dependence, we find the positive relationship between family ownership concentration and productivity performance to be much stronger in chaebol firms than in non-chaebol firms. Moreover, high debt reliance (or low equity–asset ratio) is shown to be negatively related to productivity performance in non-chaebol firms but positively in chaebol firms. J. Japanese Int. Economies20 (2) (2006) 209–233.