Academy of Management Honors FamilyBusiness.org Editor Kimberly Eddleston
Kimberly Eddleston, Founding Editor of FamilyBusiness.org and a longtime contributor to its sister publication EIX, was recently honored by the Academy of Management (AOM) with its 2024 Practice of Entrepreneurship Award.
The award, announced at AOM’s annual meeting in Chicago August 9-13, was in recognition of Eddleston’s work in launching and growing FamilyBusiness.org, which has become the leading website in the world dedicated to supporting and educating family businesses.
The Academy of Management is the preeminent professional association for management and organization scholars. Its worldwide members are professors and PhD students in business schools at universities, academics in related social science and other fields, and practitioners who value knowledge creation and application. Founded in 1936, AOM’s global community today is nearly 18,000 strong and spans over 120 countries.
Both FamilyBusiness.org and EIX are funded by the Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation, the charitable organization founded by Best Buy Founder and retired Chairman Dick Schulze, keeping their content free for all. Together the two sites attracted more than 15 million page views during the academic year ending June 30, 2024.
Articles on FamilyBusiness.org cover a range of topics that are of interest to family business leaders and those who work with them, with the aim of promoting a “healthy family, healthy business.” Submissions are welcome from all and articles are peer reviewed before accepted for publication. Popular topics include succession planning, board of directors, raising the next generation, innovation, family offices, and wealth management.
Eddleston has been Editor-in-Chief of FamilyBusiness.org since its launch in 2018. She worked with EIX Founding Editor James Wetherbe and its Editor-in-Chief David Deeds to build an impressive editorial board of leading family business academics and consultants to contribute articles and support the dissemination of research. The two platforms collaborate with the leading entrepreneurship and family business journals to provide research translations, including Journal of Business Venturing, Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, Journal of Family Business Strategy, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, Journal of Small Business Management, and Family Business Review. Eddleston has also interviewed more than 60 family business leaders, consultants, and scholars herself, adding to FamilyBusiness.org’s rich trove of video content, which is also available on YouTube.
Eddleston was also one of the first Senior Editors of EIX, which launched in 2014. She contributed dozens of articles to EIX, in topics ranging from the impact of family meals on future entrepreneurs, to managing the growing pains of midsized companies, to the special challenges faced by entrepreneurial women. She continues to contribute to EIX as well as leading the family business site.
“Under Kim’s leadership Familybusiness.org has grown from a startup to become the most visited website dedicated to Family Business on the internet,” noted Deeds, who nominated her for the AOM award and who today is Executive Editor of EIX and FamilyBusiness.org.
“I honestly cannot think of an individual more deserving of this award because of the incredible impact of her efforts. FamilyBusiness.org is far more than a book, or a simple program, it has international reach, and thanks to the support of the Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation it is well positioned to continue to grow and provide valuable content to practitioners over many, many years.”
In the video below, Eddleston reflects on her career and the people who’ve made the success of FamilyBusiness.org possible.
