Our Latest Articles

September 15, 2025 - Issue #150

Are Your Family and Business Thriving Together - Or Undermining Each Other? Like organisms in nature, the relationship between family and business can be mutually beneficial or detrimental. Here's how to strengthen both spheres.

Family CEOs May Encourage More Innovation Than Non-Family Leaders While professional non-family leadership may bring some advantages, the stability brought by family leaders may encourage employees to innovate without fear of failure.

Things to Consider When Transferring Family Business Ownership Family business succession involves transferring ownership as well as management. Family circumstances and past events lead to three types of ownership transfers.

Addressing Substance Use Disorders in a Family Enterprise When a family member struggles with addiction, the consequences can ripple throughout the firm and increase its risks.

What Family Firms Can Teach Us About Work-Life Balance Blurring work and personal lives can lead to stress and exhaustion. Family businesses do these four things to create healthier boundaries.

Will Your Successors See Themselves as Heirs or Entrepreneurs? Mentoring plays a huge role in shaping how the next generation views the role of family business leader, a study in China shows.

Hand Down the Family Business but Keep a Hand In Skip-generation entrepreneurship combines the wisdom of business founders with the energy and tech savviness of their grandchildren.

Outsource or Hire?

Are the 'Best Practices' All Wrong for Your Family Business? The best processes and systems come not from outside advisers and experts, but from how families actually live, relate to one another, and make decisions.

Family Culture Can Block (or Unlock) Innovation Low trust, resistance to change, and intergenerational communication gaps can prevent new strategies and collaboration from taking root.

Family Business Leaders' Fear of Failure Can Inhibit Next Gens When parents openly display fear of failing, it can unintentionally portray entrepreneurship as unsafe, undesirable, or even shameful. This doesn't help their successors or the business.

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What Nonfamily Managers Need From Family Firm Leaders

How Families Can Re-Engage Reluctant Successors Without Pressure

Family Offices Are Expanding Their Role

You're Adding a Board of Directors. Is Your Management Team Ready?

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Recent

How Families Shape Successor Motivation—and the Firm’s Long-Term Direction

by Alexandra Dawson / Research Insight

Family firms don’t have goals—people do. The rise and fall of Italy's Florio dynasty shows how successor motivation shapes the balance between growth, legacy, and community—and how families can buildl more durable, values-led leadership. Read more...

Will Your Nonfamily Employees Defend Your Business?

by Sarah Burrows, Craig Crossley, Catherine Faherty, and Jim Combs / Research Insight

A stewardship climate, where employees feel trusted and truly valued, mobilizes nonfamily employees to defend the family firm against reputational threats. Read more...

The 11 Digital Warning Signs of Conflict Escalation in Business Families

by Christina Strauss, Arist von Schlippe, Franz Kellermanns, and Torsten Pieper / Research Insight

Digital communication speeds up family business decisions—but it also accelerates conflict. Based on 100+ pages of real emails and texts, here are 11 signs that an all-out brawl is coming. Read more...

Announcing Our 2024-25 Schulze Awards Winners

by Kimberly Eddleston and Mat Hughes / Commentary

These awards recognize exceptional thought leadership, clarity of perspective, and the ability to bridge research and practice. Read more...

by Kerry Hannon

Listening to the Family: The Strategic Value of Surveys

by Claudia Binz Astrachan

Will Your Family Brand Survive New Leadership?

by Meghan Lynch

Why Does EOS/Traction Work So Well for Family Businesses?

by Sara Stern

From 'Passing Down' to 'Building Up': Rethinking Values in Family Firms

by Viktoria Luft, Anne Katarina Heider, Heinrich Liechtenstein, and Tarek el Sehity