The Family Business Research Lab leverages the strength of its diverse team of researchers, with deep connections to family business academics and practitioners worldwide, alongside strong local ties to UK family enterprises.
Our mission is to support local family businesses in thriving while fostering a global ecosystem for impactful research and tailored knowledge exchange partnerships. We are dedicated to advancing the resilience, innovation, and international success of family businesses, which are vital to economic growth and employment globally.
Our goals
We empower family enterprises to navigate challenges like succession, leadership transitions, and sustainability through cutting-edge research, strategic insights, and bespoke training. Aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we prioritise gender equality, innovation, economic growth, and sustainable communities.
Our impact
By providing customised solutions on family business entrepreneurship and innovation, digital transformation, and inclusive leadership, we create lasting impact. Our efforts enable family businesses to be resilient, thrive across generations, and drive inclusive economic development.
Our research interests
Our team advances research on family businesses across a diverse range of topics, including:
- Intergenerational management: Exploring leadership transitions and collaborative strategies across generations
- Transgenerational entrepreneurship: Investigating how entrepreneurial values and ventures are nurtured and sustained within families over time
- Non-family employees: Examining the role, integration, and impact of non-family members in family-run enterprises
- Women leaders: Exploring the challenges women leaders – founders and successors – in family businesses face in entering and managing the business
- Digital transformation: Analysing how family businesses adapt and leverage digital technologies to remain competitive
- Green innovation: Studying sustainable practices and environmental innovations conducted by family firms
- Family office practices: Investigating the strategies and management of family wealth and legacy through dedicated family offices