When the majority of the
capital is in the hands of another family firm, we classify that company as family
as well. We use a 50% threshold for control as opposed to the lower level used in
empirical analysis of publicly held corporations because of the different
ownership structures of closely held and publicly held firms. In a publicly held
firm, a shareholder with a large minority stake (e.g. 10% to 20%) can have
effective control.