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_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.

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_Typology of family offices.- Financial and non-financials goals of families.- Formal and informal control mechanisms.- Interdependencies between family business and family office.- Antecedents of conflict in family offices.- Consequences of conflict in family offices.

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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.

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