Owner-managers and firm performance during the asian and global financial crises: evidence from Korea

We examine the performance of the Korean owner-managers during the 1997?1998 Asian financial crisis and the 2008?2009 global financial crisis to establish whether they overcome the unexpected exterior shocks better than employed managers. We find that the owner-managers record a significantly greater performance during the crises, and especially during the latter period. Moreover, our results suggest that such a tendency comes from the owner-managers’ superior investment decisions. Our paper thus highlights the role of owner-managers by studying their performance during the Korean economic crisis periods. (JEL G01, G32, G34)