DOES THE NUMBER OF OWNERS MATTER IN FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF FAMILY AND NON-FAMILY FIRMS?

Purpose: The goal of this paper is to explore the relationship between number of owners and financial performance of family and nonfamily firms. Design/methodology/approach: The research sample contains 245 privately held Czech firms, out of which 58% are family businesses. We used financial data from the year 2017 extracted from the Albertina database. Financial performance was measured by return on assets, current ratio, assets turnover and debt-to-equity ratio. Correlation and multiple linear regression analyses were conducted. Findings: The results suggest that the number of owners of family firms is associated with higher return on assets and thus profitability, whereas no effects have been found in the sample of non-family firms. The number of owners seems to have no effects on liquidity, debt use and asset management. Research/practical implications: Larger size of the owning group may be beneficial to family firm performance. In non-family firms, it does not seem to affect firm performance. Originality/value: We contribute to the knowledge on the role of owning groups in performance of privately held firms.