• HOST
• CHAIRPERSONS
• KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
• PROGRAMME
• BACKGROUND
• CALL FOR PAPERS
• IFERA AWARD FOR THE BEST RESEARCH PAPER
• EUROPEAN STEP AWARD
• SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
• DEADLINES
• PRACTICALITIES
• LIST OF PARTICIPANTS
• DOWNLOAD ACCEPTED PAPERS

Witten/Herdecke University
Witten Institute for Family Business

 Professor Dr. Arist von Schlippe, Chair of Leadership and Dynamics in Family Business

Dr. Christina Erdmann, Assistant Professor, Chair of Leadership and Dynamics in Family Business

Professor Leif Melin, Centre Director,
Centre for Family Enterprise and Ownership, Jönköping International Business School, Sweden

Associate Professor Mattias Nordqvist, Centre Co-Director,
Centre for Family Enterprise and Ownership, Jönköping International Business School, Sweden

Prof. Joseph H. Astrachan
Wachovia Eminent Scholar Chair of Family Business
“Nurturing family as a source of continuity in changing times”

Prof. Dr. Thomas Zellweger
Center for Family Business at the University of St. Gallen
“Balancing Stability and Change for Transgenerational
Value Creation in Family Firms” 

 

CLICK HERE for the final programme

The EIASM Workshop on Family Firm Management Research has become one of the most important venues for scholars to gather and discuss current research on the family businesses in Europe and beyond. The 7th annual EIASM Workshop, is organised and hosted by Witten/Herdecke University, Germany, and continues the tradition of successful academic events that have been created at the previous meetings Jönköping (2005 & 2007), Nice (2006), Naples (2008), Hasselt (2009), and Barcelona (2010). The 7th EIASM workshop will continue the tradition to attract well-known scholars from related fields to share their interest and perspectives on family firm management, and it will provide a great opportunity for researchers to share their experiences, give feedback on each other’s work and to form new research collaborations.

Special Theme: The challenge of family businesses to balance tradition and change

To grow their organizations over time, family business leaders continuously have to face the challenge to keep balance between contradicting forces where one of the most prominent balancing act is that between tradition and change. Tradition is an essential resource that may constitute a competitive advantage for the family firm based on its history, long-term strategy, and sustainability. Tradition often makes a family business rooted in its original place of location and feeling responsibility towards the employees and key stakeholders. Previous family business research has associated all these aspects with a value-orientation, responsibility, and trustworthiness. Tradition is so closely linked to family business that this form of organisation sometimes is seen as a specific “brand” on its own. But, on the other hand, the demands on change increase. What works for a business today may not work tomorrow. Markets change rapidly. For businesses with international ambitions, the place of origin can often not be more than just a place for a small branch office of a worldwide acting company.

This means that an important task for scholarly research and theory development is to understand how family firms deal with the balance of tradition and change. We invite papers that address different aspects of the conference theme, including

• research that seeks to understand the specific features of a culture of continuous renewal
• research dealing with entrepreneurship in family firms
• research about building a family strategy that adjusts changes in family and business,
• research building on history and traditions to face contemporary competitive realities

While submission of papers related to the main theme - the challenge of family businesses to balance tradition and change - are encouraged, the workshop accepts quality papers relevant to any area of family firm research and which add value to the development of the family business research field, including:

• literature reviews focusing on the family business field: state-of-the-art papers that allow discussing the knowledge already acquired and the main challenges to address in future research. Review papers can focus on a main theme within the general family business field, such as corporate governance, strategic management, corporate entrepreneurship, or gender, or focus on the relevance of a specific theory to the study of family firm, such as RBV, agency, stewardship, social networks, institutionalism, or critical management, to only name a few.
• papers that use the family firm context for contributing to the development of general management concepts and theories. Comparisons between family and non-family firms, but also between different types of family firms should belong to this category.
• papers on other topics of relevance, which may add value to the field of family businesses.

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION OVER

To submit your final paper please follow the uploading procedure from the notification e-mail that EIASM sent you upon acceptance.

The International Family Enterprise Research Academy (IFERA) will grant an Award for the best research paper, which involves a complimentary membership for one year for all authors of the paper, and a free registration at the next IFERA World Family business Conference for one of the authors.

The European STEP Project initiative will grant an award for the Best Paper on Entrepreneurship and Family Businesses. The Best Paper Award is prized with 2,000 Euros.

The proposal is composed by a cover page and the body of the proposal. Please note that the proposal has to be submitted online as ONE document!
The COVER PAGE should be a separate sheet including the following information:
- Title
- Each Author’s name, his/her affiliation, address, telephone, fax, e-mail
The BODY of the proposal will consist of an abstract of 2 pages (cover page not included)
- All proposals should be single spaced, 11 point font, Times new roman or similar.
- The Abstract should include:
   o Purpose/topic of research
   o Research method
   o Theories used
   o Contribution of research
 

Proposal Submission: 20 February 2011
Author Notification: 7-11 March 2011
Registration for authors: 15 April 2011
Final Papers: 29 April 2011 

VENUE

Private Universität Witten/Herdecke
Alfred-Herrhausen-Straße 50
D - 58448 Witten

TRANSPORTATION
For details about transportation to Dortmund and Witten CLICK HERE

ACCOMMODATION

We advise all participants to select a hotel in Dortmund. Bus transportation (shuttle service) will be organised between Hotel Pullman and the conference venue as well as the Dinner venue on Saturday evening. If you choose another hotel, please note that you have to plan to come to Hotel Pullman to use the shuttle service.
More information will be offered in the detailed programme.

For the participants of the 7th Workshop on Family Business Firms Management Research we have negotiated special rates at Hotel Pullman. Rooms are available for special EIASM rates until April 26, 2011. Participants are asked to book and pay rooms by themselves. Please refer to “EIASM” when making a reservation in order to receive reduced room rates at this hotel.

Hotel Pullman Dortmund
Single room / Double room: 109,00 € per night (breakfast included) (rate valid until May 10, upon availability)
Lindemannstr. 88, D - 44137 Dortmund
Tel: +49 (0) 231 9113 867, Fax: +49 (0) 231 9113 999
Email: H2833@accor.com
Website: www.pullmanhotels.com    

Please note that the hotels listed below are situated close to Hotel Pullman but they do not offer special rates for EIASM participants.
Best Western Parkhotel Westfalenhalle ****
Strobelallee 41, 44139 Dortmund

ibis Dortmund City **
Märkische Strasse 73, 44141Dortmund

NeuHaus ***
Agnes-Neuhaus-Str. 5, 44135 Dortmund

ABOUT WITTEN

DINNER VENUE

REGISTRATION

Cancellations made before May 6, 2011 will be reimbursed minus 20% of the total fee. No reimbursement will be possible after that date.

Payments should be made by :

• The following credit cards: Visa or Eurocard/Mastercard/Access

ADMINISTRATION