New Frontiers in Family Business: 2023 Research Conference

The Family Business Research Foundation’s annual research conference took place in March 2023 in collaboration with the Enterprise Research Centre (Aston Business School and Warwick Business School). The conference, New Frontiers in Family Business Research, has hosted at The Shard in London, with around 120 people attending, the majority of whom attended in-person.

The conference sought to bring together researchers, policy makers, and family-business practitioners to discuss current themes and challenges in the family-business research field, and to explore new priorities and avenues for research. In particular, the event explored the following themes:

·       Current issues and challenges in family business research

·       “Hot topics” in family business research: Wellbeing, digital adoption, taxation.

·       Family business research in policy and practice.

·       Family business data – availability, accessibility, quality, challenges.

·       Recent and current research of the ERC and the IFB Research Foundation focusing on family firms.

After an opening session from ERC Director Professor Stephen Roper, Sir Michael Bibby Chairman of the Research Foundation discussed the role of the Family Business Research Foundation in bridging the gap between researchers and universities and family business. In particular, he outlined some of the challenges in accessing good quality family business data and in disseminating research insight and evidence among those who run and own family businesses.

View slides from Sir. Michael’s presentation here.

This was followed by Dr. Allan Discua Cruz – Director of the Centre for Family Business at Lancaster University Business School – delivering the keynote presentation which focused on the importance of stories in family business research and in understanding the experiences of family businesses and business families. His presentation opened with a quotation: “Every family in business has a story to tell, a legend to live up to, a tragedy to lament”, and explored how narratives can help us better understand decision-making in family businesses – a key theme which ran through the day.

Watch Dr. Discua Cruz’s talk on YouTube here.

View slides from Dr. Discua Cruz’s presentation here.

ERC Research Fellow Maria Wishart chaired the first panel session of the day. Jane Suter (University of York), Niamh Lenihan (University College Cork), and Eileen Donnelly (Replace) discussed wellbeing in family businesses. The importance of creating an environment of psychological safety in family businesses was highlighted, and the role played by culture, values and stories in enabling this. The panellists also drew attention to the importance of line managers in managing workplace mental-health issues, and the emotional toll this can place on them.

Watch the panel discussion on YouTube here.

After a break, we moved onto the second presentation of the day by Dr Emanuela Rondi (Università degli Studi di Bergamo). Emanuela’s presentation focused on the theme of innovation, arguing that there is significant innovation potential to be unlocked in family businesses. A fascinating discussion followed on the relationship between innovation and tradition, with Emanuela arguing that tradition can be a distinctive asset when it comes to family firm innovation.

Watch Dr. Rondi’s talk on YouTube here.

View slides from Dr. Rondi’s presentation here.

The theme of innovation continued into the next presentation, which discussed what works in encouraging digital adoption in family businesses. Halima Jibril, Research Fellow at the ERC, discussed the findings of a randomised control trial evaluation of a programme designed to boost digital adoption in small family businesses. The findings indicate that short, online courses focusing on encouraging adoption can be effective, and that peer learning plays a crucial part in building the confidence to adopt technologies in family firms.

Watch Dr. Jibril’s talk on YouTube here.

After a networking lunch, we returned to a presentation by Andy Wiggins and Guilherme Pereira of PwC UK reporting on some of the preliminary findings from the Family Business Research Foundation’s Total Tax Contribution study. The study aims to estimate the total tax contribution that UK family firms make to the UK public finances, as part of a wider programme of work by the Research Foundation to better understand the economic impact of UK family firms.

Watch Andy and Gui’s presentation on YouTube here.

View slides from Andy and Gui’s presentation here.

We then moved into a section focusing on family-business data. Professor Roper returned to the stage, this time in conversation with John Cushing, CEO and Founder of data analytics business mnAi to explore new opportunities for accessing data on family businesses using AI.

Watch their conversation on YouTube here.

A second panel discussion followed which sought to explore how the quality, availability and access to business data might be improved to support new family business research in the UK. The discussion was chaired by Louise Scholes of Loughborough University and included Josh Martin (The Bank of England), Frances Pottier (Department for Business and Trade), and Sharon Ryan (Repgraph). The discussion identified some of the problems involved in defining and identifying family businesses and explored some of the challenges that researchers face when seeking to access and use national business data.

Watch the panel discussion on YouTube here.

The final session of the day was a panel discussion, chaired by Professor Monder Ram of Aston University, which focused on the theme of family business research into policy and practice. Dr Emanuela Rondi returned to the stage, joined by Professor Julia Rouse (Manchester Metropolitan University) and Professor Kiran Trehan (University of York), on the practice of engaged scholarship in relation to family business research. We returned to the theme of the power of narrative, with the panellists considering how researchers can better engage with businesses, questioning whether academic detachment was something desirable or even possible. Stories (of individuals, families, businesses) capture the complexity of family dynamics, power relations and the role of emotions in family businesses and business families.

Watch the panel discussion on YouTube here.

Professor Roper rounded off the day by thanking speakers and delegates for an interesting day of discussion on family businesses, with lots of learning and new connections made, and plenty of inspiration for areas of future research.

Most of the slides from presentations made during the day can be accessed here.