As part of the “WU Family Business Talk”, Felix Alexander Porsche was a guest at WU Vienna on December 17, 2024. Moderated by Reinhard Prügl and Daniel Mainka (President of the WU Family Business Talk), Felix gave interesting insights into the family business in a panel discussion, but also talked about his own projects. The event was very well attended with over 400 participants in the WU Audimax. Felix and his father Wolfgang Porsche are both WU graduates and maintain a close relationship with WU, among other things by supporting talented students from low-income families as part of the “WU4YOU” program.

More information about the WU Family Business Talk: https://family-business-talk.at/

On 10 December 2024, the Institute for Family Business at the Department of Management organized the research seminar for doctoral students.

Dr. Elke Schröder, developmental psychologist and head of the Competence Center for Educational Guidance at the Ludwigsburg University of Education (Germany), kicked off the event with her research on “Growing up in a family business: The early career development and succession planning of children and parents in family firms”. In her presentation, she shed light on how social conditioning and educational processes in business families influence the career decisions and succession motivation of children from an early age.

Dr. Julia Süss-Reyes then responded with a contribution on the connection between family sciences and family business research. Her systematic overview “The business family in family science”, co-authored by Alexander Kessler and Reinhard Prügl, opened up new perspectives for interdisciplinary approaches and highlighted potential for future collaboration between both fields.

The seminar was rounded off with a practice-oriented workshop for doctoral students entitled “How to ... present yourself at scientific meetings”, which provided valuable tips for presenting your own research at scientific conferences.

As part of the 70^th anniversary celebrations of SME Research Austria, Reinhard Prügl took part in the panel discussion on “Current and future opportunities and challenges for small and medium-sized businesses in the context of global transformations” on November 21, 2024. In addition to Prof. Dr. Reinhard Prügl, the panel of experts included other well-known personalities such as Prof. Dr. Urs Füglistaller (Director of the Swiss Institute for SMEs, University of St. Gallen), Dr. Johannes Kopf (Chairman of the Management Board of the Austrian Public Employment Service), Dr. Margit Noll, MBA (Head of European and International Programs, Austrian Research Promotion Agency) and Philipp Gaggl, BA (Director and Head of Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) Consulting, PwC Austria). Reinhard Prügl represented the concerns of family businesses in the panel discussion.

Christine Bachner was awarded the Rudolf Sallinger Prize for her dissertation project on November 11, 2024.

In the category “Social Science and Business Administration Issues”, she impressed the jury with her exposé on “The Influence of Business Families on Intellectual Property Management and Innovation Performance of Family Firms”. The dissertation project is supported with a grant of 1,500 euros.

The award underlines the scientific relevance and quality of research on family businesses at WU Vienna. In her dissertation, Christine Bachner examines the influence of business families on the management of intellectual property and the innovation performance of family businesses - a topic of great practical importance for the sustainable development of family businesses.

We congratulate Christine Bachner on this award and look forward to the further findings of her research!

Elsevier and Stanford University have compiled a ranking of the world's most cited scientists. This is intended to measure the influence of researchers over their entire career or their scientific achievements in 2023. To be included in the ranking, researchers must either be among the top 100,000 scientists worldwide or among the top 2% in their respective fields. We are delighted that Reinhard Prügl is represented in the “Single Year” ranking and congratulate him warmly!

More information: https://www.wu.ac.at/universitaet/news-und-events/news/details-news/detail/31-wu-forscherinnen-unter-den-besten-2-weltweit

Julia Süss-Reyes attended the 19^th EIASM workshop on family firm management research, held in Barcelona from September 30 to October 1, 2024. Julia chaired a session on “drivers, barriers and failure in family business” and presented the paper “The business family in family science: A systematic review and opportunities for building bridges to family business research” (co-authored by Alexander Kessler and Reinhard Prügl).

As part of the Marketing Management course (led by Alexander Keßler and Reinhard Prügl) in the Master's program in Management, the family businesses Sonnentor and Weingut Pfaffl were guests at WU Vienna on May 27 and 28, 2024.

Kristina Hummel (Head of Marketing at Sonnentor) and Heidemarie Fischer (Managing Director of Weingut Pfaffl) reported in detail on the marketing activities of these internationally renowned and successful Austrian family businesses. The main topics were sustainability aspects in the marketing mix and entrepreneurial marketing. The two speakers responded openly and in detail to the many questions asked, providing all participants with many interesting insights into the interface between marketing theory and marketing practice in family businesses.

On May 16, 2024, Junge Wirtschaft presented its new succession strategy at a press conference. Reinhard Prügl was invited as an expert to point out the risks of a failed family business succession. These include the loss of knowledge, skills, innovative strength, jobs and apprenticeships. One of the main reasons for the lack of successors is the outdated image of succession careers. “It is seen as traditional and old-fashioned, but the opposite is true” emphasized Reinhard Prügl. Just like founding a business, taking over an existing family business can also be “cool”.

The press conference was very well received and was followed by reports in numerous media, including Die Presse, der Kurier and the Ö1 Morgenjournal. Further information can be found in category “In the Media”.

We are currently completing our team and filling a PhD position in family business research.

Click here for the job ad.

22.05.2023: The article"Born-again global internationalization in family businesses as a process: A dynamic capabilities perspective in the context of socioemotional wealth" by Alexander Kessler and Viktoriya Zipper-Weber was recently accepted for publication in the Journal of Family Business Management.

Born-again global internationalization is a rarely researched topic. Especially process-oriented studies are largely missing. In loss modes concerning their socioemotional wealth (SEW), family businesses take more risks and can be informative examples of born-again global internationalization. The article analyzes the process of born-again global internationalization of a mature family business triggered by succession in an SEW loss mode. The interplay of dynamic capabilities (DCs) as drivers and SEW preservation guides the in-depth analysis based on an interpretative single case study design.

The analysis reveals a model with (1) the personal and familial level of the business family, (2) the bonding and transfer level between the business family and the family business and (3) the organizational level as three levels of DCs as drivers of born-again global internationalization in family businesses and SEW preservation as a continuously influencing context.

09.01.2023: The article"What Drives Innovation in Family Farms? The Roles of Socioemotional Wealth and Diverse Information Sources" by Elena Fuetsch was recently accepted for publication in the European Journal of Family Business.

This article investigates socioemotional wealth (SEW) and diversity of information sources as innovation drivers in family farms. A sample of 911 family farms was used for linear regression analysis. The SEW dimension identification of the family members with the farm positively affects the implementation of innovation measures. Diversity of information sources is also positively linked to innovation measures. However, it has a negative moderating effect on the relationship between identification and innovation measures. While diverse information sources seem to increase a family farm’s ability to innovate, it can also mitigate the farms willingness to innovate when information is ambiguous. The study integrates knowledge from agricultural, innovation and family business research and contributes to a better understanding of the peculiar business type “family farms”.

The article is a part of the cumulative dissertation project of Elena Fuetsch at the Research Institute for Family Business supervised by Hermann Frank and Alexander Kessler with Miriam Bird (Technical University of Munich) as external supervisor.

25.11.2022: The article “The influence of familiness on decision-making quality in top management teams: The role of emotional dissonance and perceived team support”was recently accepted for publication in the Journal of Family Business Strategy and is available online now.

In this article, Laura Hoekx, Frank Lambrechts, Pieter Vandekerkhof, Wim Voordeckers and Hermann Frank address the relationship between familiness, approached from a new systems theory perspective, and decision-making quality in family firm top management teams. They focus on two potential explanations of this relationship by examining the mediating role of emotional dissonance and perceived team support. A hand-collected multiple-respondent dataset of 212 top managers from 45 Belgian family firm TMTs shows a positive relationship between familiness and decision-making quality, mediated by the level of perceived team support. Moreover, familiness decreases the level of emotional dissonance experienced by these top managers.

A substantial part of the development of this article was done by Laura Hoekx during her research visit at the Research Institute for Family Business.

In this article, Hermann Frank, Alexander Kessler, Susanne Beck, Julia Suess-Reyes and Elena Fuetsch address the importance of the business family for the functioning of both the business and the family. We present the concept of the enterpriseness of business families (the ability to handle the potentially contradictory expectations of the family and business systems) and develop and validate a scale for measuring the enterpriseness of business families.

Our new book published by Facultas is now available! It takes a comprehensive look at digitalization in family businesses and offers interesting conclusions about the most important success factors. By taking a qualitative as well as a quantitative methodical approach, it provides an ideal basis for reflections for both researchers and managers. We wish you an exciting and insightful reading!

After 12 years of very successful and highly acknowledged leadership, Hermann Frank handed the FoFU over to Alexander Kessler as of 1.1.2022. Sincere thanks to Hermann Frank for all he has done for the FoFU and especially the team behind! All the best to Alexander Kessler in his new position and for the work ahead!

Members of the Research Institute for Family Business took leading functions in the G-Forum conference: Alexander Keßler acted as Conference Co-Chair and Hermann Frank and Alexander Keßler were responsible for the conference program. Hermann Frank is a former member of the FGF Chair and brought the G-Forum to Vienna. With about 300 participants, this conference in Vienna counts as one of the most successful annual G-Forum conferences.

10.04.2018. We are very happy that our recent article on the development of the Family Influence Familiness Scale (FIFS) in ET&P is mentioned among the “Rising Stars in Family Business Research”. The ranking was developed by the International Family Enterprise Research Academy (IFERA) and comprises the 10 most cited papers published in the last three years (according to Web of Science). For further information on the ranking please visit: rising stars Family Business research

Julia Süss-Reyes joined in the invitation to become member of the Editorial Review Board of Journal of Family Business Strategy (JFBS). JFBS is among the leading scientific journals in the family business research field and has an impact factor of 2.375 (according to the 2016 Journal Citation Report published by Thomson Reuters).

For more information about the journal see: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-family-business-strategy

On June 8, 2017 Paul Senger-Weiss was awarded the Golden Badge of Honor (“Goldene Ehrennadel”) of the WU Vienna University of Economics and Business for his long-term engagement in the advisory board of the Research Institute for Family Business. Senger-Weiss was chair of the advisory board since the foundation of the institute in 2009 and is now retiring from his position at his own request.

Read more: <link https: www.wu.ac.at universitaet news-und-events news details-news detail goldene-ehrennadel-der-wirtschaftsuniversitaet-wien-an-paul-senger-weiss-verliehen-1>www.wu.ac.at/universitaet/news-und-events/news/details-news/detail/goldene-ehrennadel-der-wirtschaftsuniversitaet-wien-an-paul-senger-weiss-verliehen-1/

We want to congratulate him to this high decoration and thank him for the constructive collaboration over many years!

On 25 January 2017, the Research Institute for Family Business and the Family Business Network Austria (FBN) held a workshop for members of the Family Business Network Austria on the subject of business family identities at “Lugeck” restaurant. Thomas Figlmüller, 4th generation member of the Figlmüller family, explained how he and his brother took over and expanded the family business that currently counts six branches situated all over Vienna.

Dr. Isabell Stamm, our invited speaker from the technical university in Berlin (Institute for Sociology), presented her insights on “The identity-generating power of entrepreneurial projects – how business families define who they are, were and want to be”. Her speech focused on the narrative culture of business families, the emergence and alteration of stories and how they help to reproduce entrepreneurship across generations. Subsequently, Dr. Julia Süss-Reyes provided an anniversary report and outlook on the activities of the Research Institute for Family Businesses. Dr. Alexander Keßler presented empirical-quantitative results on how family business characteristics (“familiness”), family climate and family governance can explain the business family’s identity.

We thank Mag. Claudia Illichmann (CEO of the Family Business Network Austria) for organizing the workshop, KR Spängler (president of Family Business Network Austria and chairman of the supervisory board at Bankhaus Carl Spängler & Co. Aktiengesellschaft) for moderating the workshop and all participants for the interesting and fruitful discussions which contributed to the exchange between research and practice!

In cooperation with the Johannes Keppler University Linz, the Institute for Small Business Management and Entrepreneurship organized the Competence-based Strategic Management Conference (Konferenz Strategisches Kompetenz-Management) at the WU campus from September 21-23, 2016.

International Family Enterprise Research Academy (IFERA), Bogotá (June 28-29, 2016)

Julia Suess-Reyes and Elena Fuetsch attended the IFERA 2016 in Bogotá (Colombia) which is the leading conference in the family business research field. On top of a successful paper presentation (The future of family farming: A literature review on innovative, sustainable and succession-oriented strategies), both researchers were honored with an award:

• Julia Suess-Reyes: Best Reviewer Award

• Elena Fuetsch: Best Conference Paper Award for First-Time Presenter

Congratulations!

Hollabrunn. On March 30, 2016 Hermann Frank delivered a speech on the particularities of agricultural family businesses, their challenges and future perspectives. He also took part in the related panel discussion, together with Federal Minister Dr. Sophie Karmasin, Mag. Hanni Rützler (expert on future food), DI Maximilian Hardegg (farm manager) and Dr. Thomas Uher (CEO of Erste Bank Austria, member of the WU University Board).   The “Erste Bank Forum Weinviertel, Agricultural Talks” is a regular event which is attended by several hundred farmers that work in the region.  

The Research Institute for Family Business is currently running the project on success factors of agricultural family farms in Lower Austria (sponsored by Land Niederösterreich, Gutsverwaltung Hardegg and Erste Bank Österreich). Agricultural family farms in Lower Austria strongly contribute to the success of the Austrian economy. At the same time, they are confronted with growing challenges: Continuous budget cutbacks, poor harvests caused by climate changes, unforeseeable price fluctuations and a tendentially low willingness of potential successors to take over the farm put the traditional Lower Austrian agriculture under increased pressure and have led to a continuous decline in the number of family farms over the last decades. To master the present challenges and to safeguard future sustainability it is ever more important for farmers to act in an innovative, entrepreneurial and sustainable way. How Lower Austrian family farms approach these issues is analyzed in a current research project at the Research Institute for Family Business.

As part of this project we held a workshop on September 28, 2015 to establish an exchange with Lower Austrian farmers and to prepare for a quantitative study that aims at analyzing the innovative, entrepreneurial and sustainable strategies of family farms. We want to thank all workshop participants for their constructive contributions!

The family constitutes a valuable resource for family businesses but in cases of conflict it can turn into a burden. Complexity increases with family size, internal differences and engagement in the business. Furthermore, it can be difficult to maintain potential successors’ interest to safeguard a successful future. Family governance offers professional solutions to these challenges.

By presenting a number of good practice case studies, this book enhances the understanding of family governance practices and offers a range of well-proved approaches. Although there is no universal recipe that makes family management successful, every family business can learn from strategies of other family businesses and adapt their solutions to its own requirements.

Manfred Lueger & Hermann Frank (eds.): Zukunftssicherung für Familienunternehmen, Vienna: Facultas, 2015.

We are pleased that our former researcher Lavinia Nosé completed her dissertation "What makes a family business strong enough to manage conflicts? : conflict dynamics and family resources at the intersection of the family business system".

Congratulations from the Fofu-Team!

Elena Fuetsch and Hermann Frank recently published their article: “Opportunity Recognition in Family Firms in the Context of Relationship Conflicts between Managing Family Members” in

The Management Magazine of International Management Institute, Kolkata (IMI Konnect),

Due to its innovativeness our paper “Capturing the familiness of family businesses: The development of a multidimensional scale” (Daniela-Weismeier-Sammer, Hermann Frank, Alexander Kessler, Thomas Rusch, Julia Suess-Reyes) has been selected as one of the three best papers at the IFERA Research Development Workshop (RDW) 2014 held from September 24-26 in Vienna. The paper presents the first scale that aims at measuring the actual family influence on the business – a core need of family business research. It will (together with the other two best papers) be featured in a special session at the next IFERA conference 2015 in Hamburg.

Pictures from the IFERA RDW 2014!

For more information about IFERA 2015 please visit:

http://ifera2015.ifera.org/

On March 18, 2014 Julia Süss presented an enlightening research case study, taken from a current research project on family business governance in Austrian family businesses. In particular, she focused on factors that foster or impede the development of family governance measures, the development and implementation process of these measures and the value that an effective family governance system has for both the family and the business. Her presentation was attended by numerous experts in the field of family business research and was followed by a lively discussion of the results and the implications for practice and research.

We are happy to announce that the 2nd IFERA Research Development Workshop focusing on "Involvement, Essence and Identity: Developing Core Constructs in Family Business Research" is organized by the team of the Research Institute for Family Business.

The workshop takes place from 24.-26. September, 2014 at the new Campus WU in Vienna. Details on deadlines and the workshop program will be announced here soon.

Meanwhile go to http://ifera.org/index.php/rdw-2014 for details.

We hope to see you in Vienna in September 2014!

Hermann Frank was appointed as Visiting Professor by decision of the Faculty Council of the Faculty of Economics, University of Witten / Herdecke for the period 04/2013-03/2016. Congratulations!

On April 17, 2013 the team of the Research Institute for Family Business held a workshop for FBN-members focusing on familiness in family businesses in Salzburg. Hermann Frank, Daniela Weismeier-Sammer and Julia Süss presented research case studies and discussed preliminary findings from the current familiness project. We want to thank all participating family members for their feedback and insights in their family businesses! Our special thanks go to KR Heinrich Spängler for the workshop organization and moderation.

This handbook, which was financially supported by the Research Institute for Family Business, provides solutions for several legal questions in family businesses, e.g. management and control, family foundations, financing, divorce, conflict, succession etc.

Kalss, Susanne, Probst, Stephan (2013): Familienunternehmen – Gesellschafts- und zivilrechtliche Fragen, Wien: Manz. (http://www.manz.at/home.html?switch=books)

On December 12, 2012 the team of the Research Institute for Family Business in cooperation with the Family Business Network Austria (FBN)  held a workshop for FBN-members focusing on the important topic of familiness. After a presentation of the theoretical foundations of familiness, Hermann Frank and Daniela Weismeier-Sammer presented preliminary findings from the familiness-project. Four case studies of Austrian family business laid the foundation for a lively discussion of the family’s influence on the business. We would like to thank all participating FBN-members for providing us highly appreciated insights in their family businesses! Our special thanks go to KR Heinrich Spängler and DI Paul Senger-Weiss for the workshop organization and moderation.

On November 9, 2012 the Research Institute for Family Business organized a one-day workshop focusing on the influence of the family on the business. To gain different perspectives on the key topic of familiness we invited scholars and practitioners to discuss preliminary results of the qualitative part of our familiness research project (in alphabetical order): Axel Exner (Neuwaldegger Consulting Group), Inga Krauss (University Witten/Herdecke, Germany), Manfred Lueger (Institute for Sociology, WU), Gerald Mitterer (Neuwaldegger Consulting Group), Arist von Schlippe (University Witten Herdecke, WIFU) + Hermann Frank, Daniela Weismeier-Sammer and Julia Süss (Research Institute for Family Business, WU).

At the annual event of the economic consulting firm "Pöschl and Partner" was spoken about the topic of family ties. The Key note speaker of this event was Hermann Frank.

On October 18, 2012 Hermann Frank presented selected results from our current research project "Familiness in Family Business" at the Ifu-Dialog at WU. Specifically, he focused in his presentation on different dimensions of familiness theoretically and based on two case studies of Austrian family businesses.

The Ifu-Dialog is a regularly series of lectures by experts of different fields and is organized by the Institute for Strategic Management and Management Control (WU).

The interaction between family and enterprise in family businesses can open up new opportunities, but also holds specific risks. Different forms of conflicts such as task- , process- or relationship conflicts can arise; the constructive handling of these conflicts is the main subject of the study.

In the course of qualitative case studies, some family businesses were analyzed regarding their conflict management strategies. An additional quantitative study of more than 400 Austrian businesses showed that conflicts have a negative impact on certain success indicators: especially negating conflicts was found as inappropriate.

Hermann Frank, Christian Korunka & Manfred Lueger (eds.): Konfliktbewältigung in Familienunternehmen, Vienna: Facultas, 2012.

Family businesses are crucial for Austria’s economic performance. A main challenge they have to face is the overlap of family and business matters, which can occur in many, different constellations. These peculiarities, as well as different demands from markets or sectors they have to respond to, are challenges family businesses need to address. In the study some good-practice cases were chosen and presented that managed to develop action strategies for specific topics in their particular environment.

Manfred Lueger & Hermann Frank (eds.): Wie erfolgreiche Familienunternehmen handeln – Good Practice Fallanalysen, Vienna: Facultas, 2012.

Hermann Frank and Daniela Weismeier-Sammer were honored on 19th April 2012 in the course of the “WU Prämienabend” for the acquisition of third-party funds (anniversary fund of the OeNB) for the project “The measurement of familiness”.