The IFB Research Foundation published open-access Family Business Challenges case studies dealing with key topics. The first, in particular, provides a good starting point:
We are an internationally-recognised, research-led, teaching and engagement Centre that collaborates to inspire and support the better management of family firms.
The Institute of Family Business and Mittelstand at WHU (ifbm@WHU) is a thought leader in the field of family business and small and medium-sized enterprises. With a dedicated team of scholars and practitioners, we aim to study different aspects of family firms, hidden champions as well as small and medium-sized enterprises. Our most current research projects, for instance, aim to advance our understanding of innovation, leadership and employee satisfaction, succession, inertia, business ethics and financing of family firms as well as family offices.
At the FEC we value and support the Family Enterprise Community. As the oldest family business center in the world, we offer programs for enhancing the collective interests of families and businesses. We engage in industry-shaping research as well as undergraduate and graduate education through the Coles College of Business. At the core of these efforts remains our commitment to education as a crucial tool for enhancing the wealth and success of the entire family enterprise community.
The Center of Family Enterprise Research (COFER) helps to fill an important need in our society. Family businesses represent the vast majority of both new ventures and existing enterprises and contribute substantially to the U.S. economy. Furthermore, family businesses are not necessarily small; many very large companies such as Wal-Mart, Cargill, Johnson & Johnson, and Ford Motor are family businesses. However, the longevity of family businesses across generations is tenuous and many do not survive beyond the tenure of the founder.
At the University of Vermont’s Grossman School of Business, the Family Business Institute is pioneering family business research and education at the heart of business as a force of good for our planet and people. Our research-based internationally renowned in-person and online courses, forums, awards, and case competitions support the learning and networking needs of students, educators, family business advisors, and leaders.
We are a world-leading center of excellence in research, education, and outreach for family enterprises globally.
Enterprising families are at the heart of the world economy and society. In our work, we help these enterprising families, their boards, and executives become the best version of themselves to ensure family unity and multi-generational success.
Established in 1999, the John L. Ward Center for Family Enterprises pioneered much of what is known about the collective challenges that family businesses and their leaders and owners face, making the Ward Center synonymous with new ways of thinking about the ownership and leadership of family enterprises. Clinical Professor Emeritus John Ward, along with co-founder Lloyd Shefsky and numerous faculty and staff aligned with the Ward Center, developed a world-class teaching and research center that provides cutting-edge thinking and guidance for family business purpose, vision and strategy, governance, leadership, succession, entrepreneurship in family business, family engagement and cohesion and family business culture.
Wharton Global Family Alliance (Wharton GFA) – The Wharton Global Family Alliance is a Wharton initiative that centers on a broad set of issues faced by global families that control substantial enterprises and resources. The Wharton GFA is globally recognized as the leading institution for the creation and dissemination of knowledge and practices of multi-generational families and their businesses; The Wharton GFA seeks to foster the longevity, harmony, and prosperity of multi-generational, multi-branch families and their businesses. The Wharton GFA transcends boundaries to enable collaboration and effective communication between researchers and families for mutual benefit and for the benefit of society at large; it enables thought leadership, knowledge transfer, and sharing of ideas and best practices among influential families; it publishes in a range of leading academic and practitioners’ outlets cutting edge theoretical, empirical, and field research on key issues affecting families and their businesses; and it initiates, manages, and participates in global forums and conferences.
With more than 20 years of expertise in the unique dynamics of family enterprises, the Wendel International Centre for Family Enterprise (WICFE) is a leading international resource for family business. In 1997, the Wendel family founded the Large Family Firm Chair and INSEAD offered our first Family Business MBA elective. Since then we have been continuously generating research and sharing knowledge that benefits family businesses.