Raffi Amit

About

Raffi Amit is the Marie and Joseph Melone Professor and a Professor of Management at the Wharton School. He founded and leads the Wharton Global Family Alliance (WGFA), an academic-family business partnership aimed at enhancing the marketplace advantage and social wealth creation of enterprising families through thought leadership, knowledge transfer, and the sharing of ideas and best practices among influential global families. Dr. Amit has served as the Academic Director of Wharton Entrepreneurship from 1999 to 2015, overseeing all entrepreneurial programs at Wharton. His award-winning research focuses on family firms, particularly on ownership, management, governance, and finance of family businesses, as well as family wealth management and family offices. His biannual survey of family offices has provided a comprehensive decision-making guide for over a decade. His scholarly work also includes studies on innovative business models, venture capital investments, entrepreneurship, and corporate strategy, with over 80,000 citations in academic literature. Dr. Amit advises substantial families worldwide on issues such as ownership structures, governance, succession, valuation, wealth management, and family constitutions, integrating behavioral and emotional aspects with economic and financial considerations to promote family harmony and long-term prosperity. He has held various management and Board of Directors positions, including serving as Chair of Creo Products Inc. and…

Research topics

• Economics
• Business
• Finance
• Political Science
• Computer Science
• Knowledge management
• Marketing
• Market economy
• Accounting
• Microeconomics

Selected publications

• Managing the Value Appropriation Dilemma in Business Model Innovation

  Strategy Science · 2020 · 103 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Managers and designers of innovative business models that are enabled by emerging technologies need to build legitimacy with ecosystem participants. Yet increasing legitimacy within the ecosystem raises competitors’ incentives to imitate the business model innovators, thereby adversely affecting the innovators’ ability to appropriate value. We refer to this trade-off as the appropriation dilemma. We draw on institutional and resource-based perspectives to develop propositions about mitigating th…

  PublisherDOI

• Family firms and the stock market performance of acquisitions and divestitures

  Strategic Management Journal · 2019-01-12 · 78 citations

  article

  Research Summary This paper explores the stock market performance of acquisitions and divestitures where both, one, or neither of the companies in the transaction are family firms. We find that acquirer shareholder returns are highest when family firms buy businesses from non‐family firm divesters, especially when family chief executive officer (CEO) acquirers buy businesses from non‐family CEO divesters. Additionally, divester shareholder returns are highest when family firms sell businesses to…

  PublisherDOI

• Entrepreneurial Ability, Venture Investments, and Risk Sharing*

  Routledge eBooks · 2022 · 57 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  A number of issues that relate to the desirability and implications of new venture financing are examined within a principal-agent framework that captures the essence of the relationship between entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. The model suggests: (I) As long as the skill levels of entrepreneurs are common knowledge, all will choose to involve venture capital investors, since the risk sharing provided by outside participation dominates the agency relationship that is created. (2) The less…

  PublisherDOI

• Business Model Innovation Strategy

  Strategic Management · 2021-08-19 · 40 citations

  book-chapterOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract This chapter develops the concept of business model innovation (BMI) strategy, which refers to the choices made by entrepreneurial leaders of incumbents and start-ups, in for-profit and not-for-profit or hybrid organizations, with respect to (1) the design of a new system of activities; (2) the processes, including their antecedents, by which the new activity system is created and implemented; and (3) the management and ongoing adaptation of the new activity system to ensure coherence (…

  PublisherDOI

• Poised for growth: Exploring the relationship between accelerator program design and startup performance

  Strategic Management Journal · 2024-01-25 · 36 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract Research Summary Accelerator programs provide valuable market feedback and education to participants that may improve startup performance. However, it is unclear whether the average effect of accelerator participation on startup performance post acceleration is positive, and if so, how this effect varies with accelerator program design. We analyze data from 8580 startups that made it past the initial selection stage at 408 accelerators in 176 countries between 2013 and 2019. We compare…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Belén Villalonga

  53 shared

• Luigi Zingales

  University of Chicago

  36 shared

• Lynn S. Paine

  36 shared

• Gary Dushnitsky

  London Business School

  36 shared

• Leonard Lauder

  Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center

  36 shared

• Mary Spence

  Children's Hospital Colorado

  36 shared

• David Scharfstein

  36 shared

• Daniel Wolfenzon

  36 shared

Awards & honors

• Marie and Joseph Melone Professor

Similar researchers at University of Pennsylvania

• Andrew B. Abelh-60
• Eric T Bradlowh-53
• Lawton R. Burnsh-48