SI seminar with Mircea Epure

Finding the right company name is a challenging decision with major consequences for firm prospects. We study the implications of “unfamiliar” names (i.e. foreign sounding and family-unrelated) for family firm performance. Drawing on insights from strategic nonconformity and symbolic management literatures, we posit that unfamiliar names endow the business with greater distinctiveness, improving its visibility and recognition in the marketplace. Our analysis shows that unfamiliar names have a positive effect on operating returns. This result is not due to differences in R&D investment, industry specialization or geographic scope, and holds using a matching strategy or an instrumental variable based on the exogenous presence of US schools. Studying contextual variations, we find that cultural attachment to the local community and the family negatively moderates the performance effect of unfamiliar names, which may experience illegitimacy in the eyes of external stakeholders.

The seminar takes place at Kilevej 14 A, 2nd floor room K.2.53, 2000 Frederiksberg