Goals, Control and Conflicts in Family Offices: A Conceptual and In-Depth Qualitative Study

​Family offices manage and coordinate a family’s combined wealth whilst preserving the family legacy and protecting family interests. The families behind these family offices control a significant percentage of the GDP of developed economies, with consequences for financial markets. At the same time, family offices act at the intersection of family and commerce, which makes this particular form of organization appealing to the field of strategic management. Despite its practical and academic relevance, the literature has hardly explored the concept of family offices. As a result, the primary objective of this book is to introduce the domain of family offices. By exploring goals, control and conflicts in the context of family offices, this book contributes to consider this family-influenced organization an essential constituent of management research and an ever more prominent actor in today’s global financial markets.

Stephan Wessel wrote his dissertation under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Andreas Hack at the INTES Institute for Family Businesses at WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management, Vallendar.