Guest column: Risks, benefits of hiring outside the family

A recent study of more than 7,000 family businesses from across the nation, conducted by researchers at UNLV, Mississippi State University and the University of North Carolina suggests that while professional managers may have superior capability, they take positions that potentially could be filled by family members. Thus, they may not only threaten the familial nature of the business but, in the long run, increase barriers to successfully grooming family successors, inhibiting a business’ ability to succeed ownership to later generations ...