The Network of Interdisciplinary Research in Family Firms (N.I.R.F.F.)
The Network of Interdisciplinary Research in Family Firms is an academic network composed of scholars from different scientific disciplines and countries who share a common interest in exchanging knowledge about methodologies and theories related to family businesses, in a virtual and informal way. Our common goal is to share scientific tools that significantly improve the analysis of particular case studies and above all that favour the comparison and the elaboration of general conclusions. The network offers information about distinguished scholars from different disciplines and countries specialized in the study of family businesses, in order to promote possibilities for: contact, organization of activities, knowledge exchange, and debate.
Last news
- Lourdes Casanova and Paloma Fernández article published
Lourdes Casanova, INSEAD Professor of Strategy and Management School of Cornell University, published an article with Paloma Fernandez on key competitiveness of enterprises and the largest family business groups in Brazil, in the special issue on history of company and entrepreneurs in Latin America published later this year the Peruvian review Apuntes, edited by Martin Alberto Monsalve, the Universidad del Pacifico, Lima, Peru.
- Paloma Fernández conference published
The official journal of the Brazilian Association of Economic Historians has published the invited conference on possibilities and limitations of family business research in the world presented by professor Paloma Fernandez during the opening speech held in the annual congress of the association celebrated in Brasília on September 2010
Document in pdf
- "A century of change. Entrepreneurial families and family businesses in Latin America and Spain in the last century"
An international research project on family businesses in Latin America and Spain with a long-term interdisciplinary approach has been launched. "A century of change. Entrepreneurial families and family businesses in Latin America and Spain in the last century". Universitat de Barcelona, Sept 5-6 2011.
Organization: Paloma Fernández (Dept Economic History/Centre d´Estudis Antoni de Capmany Universitat de Barcelona) and Andrea Lluch (CONICET)
Contact: palomafernandez@ub.edu, and andrealluch@gmail.com
María Inés Barbero (Universidad de San Andrés, Argentina)
Program
Description: With the sponsorship of FBBVA, experts from 11 countries have initiated a research project to study the transformations of family businesses in Latin America and Spain during the last century. A first meeting and workshop will take place at the Facultat d´Economia i Empresa at Universitat de Barcelona in Spain, September the 5th and 6th of September 2011. Participation (including virtual discussions) will include presentations from: María Inés Barbero and Andrea Lluch (Argentina), Mario Cerutti (Mexico), Carlos Dávila Ladrón de Guevara (Colombia), Martín Alberto Monsalve Zanatti (Perú), Jon Martínez (Chile), Armando Dalla Costa and Carlos Eduardo Drumond (Brazil), Ramón Piñango (Venezuela), Allan Discua Cruz (on Honduras, from the UK), Lourdes Casanova (on family global latinas, from France), Juan Carlos Leiva Bonilla and Erick Guillen Miranda (Costa Rica), and on Spain Paloma Fernández Pérez, Carmen Galve, Núria Puig, and Javier Vidal.
- Visit of MBA students of California State University
- Visit of MBA students of California State University to the Facultat d´Economia i Empresa of Universitat de Barcelona. Reception at Room Ernest Lluch organized by P. Fernández, with presentations by vicedeans Cristina Poblet and Jesús Marin, and entrepreneur and member of the Council of the Catalan Association of Family Firms Romà Vilaclara. 22 June 2011.
- New book by Christina Lubinski
Abstract:
From small start-ups to global corporations, family-owned businesses were the main pillar of West Germany's economic growth after World War II. They continue to shape the corporate landscape to this day. This book offers a path-breaking historical analysis of the peculiarities of their corporate governance, placing them within the wider context of the economic and social history of Germany. Based on both quantitative data and archivally-based case studies, the book explores how the relationship between the family and the firm changed in different industries over time. These changes did not - as often assumed - result in the decline of family businesses, but instead gave rise to a different kind of competitive and internationally-oriented "Mittelstand". The study integrates approaches from new institutional economics, cultural anthropology and family sociology in order to understand this critical turning point in German family business history. The book analyses changes in ownership and management, dynastic and succession strategies, as well as in the "psychology of ownership," with detailed case studies of large family businesses. The book offers a compelling explanation for the strong ownership concentration seen in German business, and reveals the malleable relationship between family and business. It provides rich empirical evidence which offers a new interpretation of family-influenced businesses as a dynamic force embedded in the economic, institutional and cultural setting of Germany.
- Xth International Congress of the AEHE
Professionalization of Family Firms in Spain and Latin America.
Coordinators: Paloma Fernández (Universitat de Barcelona) y Elena San Román (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)
Program of the Xth Conference of the Spanish Association of Economic Historians.
September 8-10, 2011
Carmona (Spain)
http://www.aehe.net/xcongreso/ingles/sesion-modernizacion.html
- Globalizing Family Businesses for a Global Economy
- Abstract:
This panel proposal addresses with a transnational, comparative perspective some important long-term changes that large family firms have experienced in the world to overcome the challenges of globalization. Among these changes the panel focuses on the professionalization of management, new corporate governance structures, new financial tools, philanthropy, and internationalization. There will be five papers, dealing with large family firms in emerging economies, governance structures in large European family firms, Spanish multinationals in Latin America, Scandinavian family firms, and philanthropy of large family firms.
Convenor / Chair Paloma Fernández
London School of Economics
April 14-17 2011
London
http://eshop.lse.ac.uk/browse/extra_info.asp?compid=1&modid=2&prodid=52&deptid=200&catid=30
- Going Global: Internationalization Pathways for Family Firms During the 19th and 20th Century
- Conveners: Christina Lubinski (Harvard Business School, GHI), Paloma Fernández Pérez (Dept. d'Història i Institucions. Econòmiques, Universitat de Barcelona), and Jeff Fear (University of Redlands)
Workshop at the GHI
February 18-19, 2011
Washington DC
http://www.ghi-dc.org/files/pdf/2011/goingglobal/cfp_goingglobal.pdf
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