However, the majority of
these publications has not addressed the CFO’s role, but rather the CFO’s educational and
career background (Collier & Wilson, 1994; Baker & Phillips, 1999), the CFO’s influence
1 The terms “FB owners” and “controlling family” are used similarly in this paper to describe members of the
controlling family that may also exert decisive influence on management decisions, such as hiring an
external CFO, even if not holding shares in the family business themselves (e.g., by influencing their
spouses, see Chua et al., 1999).