@article {2885, title = {Corporate governance rating of family firms at the Athens exchange market}, journal = {Managerial Finance}, volume = {34}, year = {2008}, pages = {465-478}, abstract = {

Purpose
{\textendash} Corporate governance (CG) has mainly focused on highly dispersed corporations. This paper has two objectives: to enrich the debate in this area and to contribute to the increasing body of literature by exploring the CG of the listed family firms in Greece; and to place the CG practices of Greek family firms within the international debate, especially in the framework of a small open capital market. In addition, this paper presents an attempt to quantify the compliance of family firms with international best practices.

Design/methodology/approach
{\textendash} The methodology consisted of the creation of a questionnaire reflecting the Greek CG code and other well-regarded CG codes, like the OECD principles. The authors constructed a CG rating system and applied it to distinguish family from non-family firms.

Findings
{\textendash} The main conclusion is that the family firms lack an efficient CG mechanism and they demonstrated poor governance compared with non-family firms.

Practical implications
{\textendash} The results disclose the potential strengths and weaknesses of the existing CG framework of the family-owned firms. The methodology applies in a small open economy and may have significant implications in other similar capital markets.

Originality/value
{\textendash} Methodologically, the merit of the exercise lies in its approach toward the creation of {\textquotedblleft}collectively subjective{\textquotedblright} weightings, and is valuable to policymakers and academics.

}, url = {http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/03074350810874424}, author = {Spanos, L. and Tsipouri, L.J. and Xanthakis, D.M.} }