Managing Business Family Dynasties: Between Family, Organisation, and Network

This book deals with dynastic business families. Such families are characterized by a circle of owners comprising more than 50 family members, which typically face specific issues and challenges for which there has been little research knowledge and practical approaches until now. The book presents results and findings from a special research project on ＂big family management＂ where 7 representatives of dynastic families from Germany were studied over a 3-year period. The result was the identification of six topic areas that management in these business families has to deal with. At the same time, the study observes that dynastic business families hardly follow the logic of classic families anymore, but can rather be understood as networks with common family backgrounds. The study also reveals that a large number of business families are heading for large shareholder groups due to changed inheritance practices. The contents outlined here provide an orientation framework for the growing business family.

Prof. Tom A. Rüsen is the managing director of the Witten Institute for Family Business (WIFU) at Witten/Herdecke University (Germany) and serves as the CEO of the WIFU-Foundation. He is also an honorary professor and project initiator of the Big Family Management research project. The WIFU is a leading research institute in the field of family businesses in Europe and has unique access to practice through which current issues in family businesses and business families can be identified and researched.

Prof. Heiko Kleve is the academic director of WIFU and holder of the WIFU-Foundation Endowed Chair for Organisation and Development of Business Families at the Witten/Herdecke University (Germany). He is a project participant in the Big Family Management research project.

Prof. Arist von Schlippe is the former academic director of WIFU and holder of the WIFU-Foundation Endowed Chair for Leadership and Dynamics in Family Businesses at Witten/Herdecke University (Germany). He is a project participant in the Big Family Management research project.