IFERA 2024 proved to be a memorable event, surpassing all expectations. NOVA and CATÓLICA-LISBON served as the gracious hosts, creating an engaging academic atmosphere complemented by the beautiful city of Lisbon and Carcavelos. The conference featured a rich and diverse program, including Doctoral Consortium, PDW, parallel sessions, and thought-provoking keynote speeches by Peter Jaskiewicz (Telfer School of Management), Filipe Santos (CATÓLICA-LISBON School of Business and Economics), and Jenny Hoobler (Nova School of Business and Economics).
Besides the intellectually stimulating sessions, the conference and NOVA’s beautiful campus provided ample networking opportunities, fostering connections among participants. The social program, specially designed for this purpose, found its climax in an unforgettable all-white, sunset-spoilt Gala Dinner in the Fort São Julião da Barra, right next to the ocean. In the unforgiving Atlantic winds of the Gala Dinner evening, it was time for IFERA’s Award Ceremony. Thanks to the invaluable input and expertise of our distinguished juries, six prestigious awards have been allocated:
The Best Conference Paper Award sponsored by CeFeo has been awarded to Christine Scheef, Thomas Zellweger and their study entitled “Succession processes in family firms: A new temporal perspective”. The abstract is as follows:
Succession is the most prominent topic in family business research and the succession path that a family chooses will likely impact the future performance of the business. Yet surprisingly little is known about how management, board, and ownership is transitioned from one generation to the next. Using an inductive, theory-building approach based on sequence analysis and evidence from succession paths in 116 public family firms in the US, we address this gap. We introduce the concept of succession path, which describes how management, board, and ownership transitions are structured over time. Our study reveals six distinct succession paths, which vary in their pace and rhythm, but show high similarity in the sequence of the transition. Further, we study the firm performance consequences of succession paths. Specifically, we find that family firms with fast-paced succession paths and those with slow-paced, but rhythmic succession paths outperform those with slow-paced irregular rhythms. Further, early-ownership transitions benefit firm performance. Establishing succession paths as a meaningful new concept in family business research, this study not only advances our understanding of the succession phenomenon but also extends our theoretical insights into temporal processes in family firm successions.
The “WIFU Foundation” Best Paper Contribution to Practice featured not just one but three awards. The 3rd place went to Marco Mismetti, Cristina Bettinelli, Barbara Del Bosco, Alfredo De Massis with the work entitled “Navigating family firm conflict. An integrative framework for theory and a valuable tool for practice”. The 2nd place has been awarded to Frank Ilg, Maximilian Lude, Reinhard Prügl and their paper entitled “Demystification of the family. The mixed impact of ideas for innovation provided by family members on idea evaluation in family firms. A dual experiment approach”. And the first prize went to María Rodríguez García, Tomás González-Cruz with their paper “Unlocking the enigma of family councils. Exploring their fit to business families for transgenerational continuity”. The abstract is as follows:
Scholars highlight the family council's role in family business continuity, yet its governance remains understudied. To bridge this gap, this study integrates family therapy and sociology theories, recognizing the limitations of a uniform governance approach. It explores the crucial fit between the family council and business family profile, utilizing an extended Olson Circumplex Model (2011) to assess cohesion, flexibility, and communication and Habermas' (1982) ideal dialogue criteria. The study employs business family performance to analyze the importance of fit for transgenerational continuity, involving three Spanish business families through semi-structured interviews. The research establishes the first grounded model on the business family profile and family council, offering valuable implications. It underscores the importance of a balanced position on the Extended Olson Circumplex Model for a positive family council impact on business performance. An unbalanced family profile may undermine or nullify council performance. The model introduces categories like structural and cognitive family complexity, explicitly naming concepts inferred by scholars and practitioners. Overall, it enhances understanding and provides practical insights for families navigating family business dynamics and governance structures.
The IFERA Best Paper on Conference Theme prize has been awarded to awarded to Isabelle Amann, Clemens Krüger for their paper entitled “Micro-Rifts without Ruptures: Navigating Financial and Social Welfare Logics in Single-Family Offices”. The abstract is as follows:
Single-Family Offices (SFOs) increasingly navigate hybridity, balancing financial and social welfare logics. This study inductively examines how inherent logic tensions manifest and persist around investment choices using paradox theory. The multi-case study reveals discord primary arising from identity differences where influential shareholders are less aware of alternative perspectives. However, both-and approaches like impact matrices and vocal next generation advocates enable constructive responses. Critically, persistent tensions fail to escalate into organizational instability due to unique sustainability factors like patient capital, conflict avoidance norms, and tight kinship ties. The study problematizes cross-level transmission by spotlighting power dynamics as selective filters preventing SFOs from vicious cycles despite individual tensions. Key contributions include delineating investment-related clashes, pinpointing forces perpetuating inertia or enabling agility, exploring multifaceted mechanisms allowing individual-level paradoxes to persist and elucidating the varied governance models and objectives across different SFOs.
The “CYFE” Best Entrepreneurship in Family Business Paper was awarded to Patricio Duran, Santiago Mingo, Michael Carney for their paper entitled “Publicly-Listed Family-Controlled Firms and Corporate Venture Capital”. The abstract is as follows:
Despite the prevalence of publicly listed family-controlled firms (FCFs), the impact of family control on their corporate venture capital (CVC) strategy remains unexplored. Using socioemotional wealth (SEW) theory, we posit that FCFs are less likely to invest in CVC and, when they do, make fewer but larger CVC investments to enhance control over start-ups and reduce risk. However, board independence can limit FCFs’ SEW-driven CVC investment behavior. Empirical evidence from a sample of technologically intensive US publicly listed firms supports the main hypotheses.
The IFERA Best PhD Research Proposal Award, has been awarded to Laura Bauske with the work entitled “Stepping Beyond the Traditional Nuclear Family: Examining Stepfamily Dynamics’ Impact on Family Businesses” The abstract is as follows:
This dissertation addresses the evolving landscape of family structures, specifically focusing on the under-researched area of stepfamilies in family business research. Despite the significant rise in stepfamilies and the decline of the traditional nuclear family, research in family business often overlooks "non-traditional" family structures (Helgertz & Tegunimataka, 2023; Raley & Sweeney, 2020; Jaskiewicz et al., 2017; Kushins & Behounek, 2020). With my dissertation, I aim to bridge this gap by building on the family embeddedness perspective and theories from family science, such as family systems theory, to provide theoretical and empirical insights into the impact of stepfamily members’ relationships on family businesses.
All of this would not be possible without the effort, time, and dedication of all IFERA reviewers. An outstanding recognition goes to the “IFERA” Best Reviewer Award to Elisa Conz for her extraordinarily detailed and insightful reviews.
One more year, the Award Ceremony served as a shining tribute to the advancements and developments within the ever-growing field of family business. The enthusiastic response from the audience and the celebratory atmosphere of the ceremony underscored the existence of a close and supportive community. Scholars and practitioners demonstrated a heart-felt unity in their commitment to face the future together.
