INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERING: IS IT A FAMILY AFFAIR? Theoretical issue and empirical evidences from the Italian market.

This thesis aims to shed light on the relationship between family firms and IPO value as well as between such firms and post-IPO survival (defined as the condition of being still listed on equity market within three years after went public). We investigate the scope of our inquiry by investigating the population (170) of firms that went public on Milan Stock exchange Going one-step further, we address three research questions. In chapter one, we study a particular aspect of family-run businesses, namely, the impact of family and its involvement on IPO value. The research question is the following: does family involvement foster IPO value? In chapter two, we shift our attention on individual leadership and we examine how and if powerful CEO affect IPO value in family firms. The research question associated with this chapter is: does CEO power affects investor evaluations at IPO stage? In the last chapter, we investigate the role of Top Management Team (TMT) on post-IPO survival. The associated research question is as follow: is it detrimental the TMT diversity in family IPO after went public?