The Center for Family Business of the University of St.Gallen (CFB-HSG) positions itself as a leading national and international expert in research, teaching, and executive education in the domain of family business.
Prof. Dr. Thomas Zellweger holds the Chair in Family Business at the University of St.Gallen, Switzerland where he is also the Director of the Swiss Institute for Small and Entrepreneurship and of the Center for Family Business. After two years in investment banking at Derivative in Brussels, he completed his PhD at the University of St. Gallen. He was a research fellow at Babson College, a visiting professor at the University of British Columbia, and is a permanent visiting professor at the University of Witten/Herdecke. Thomas serves on several editorial boards of academic journals and his research has been published in Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal or Organization Science, amongst others. His research has also received several international awards and has been discussed in the international media such in The Economist, Forbes, and the New York Times. Thomas is a member of supervisory boards of family firms and advises family firm owners on governance and strategic questions.
Maximilian Groh holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in business management from the University of St.Gallen, Switzerland. After completing his master’s degree in 2014, Maximilian Groh joined the CFB-HSG team. As a research associate and doctoral candidate, he is particularly active in the fields of teaching, research and digital media and involved in various digitization projects. He specializes in the topics of integrative management, family business and entrepreneurship.
Walter Weber has been working at the Swiss Institute for Small and Medium Enterprises at the University of St.Gallen (KMU-HSG) since 1991 as a research associate. There he is involved in national and international SME research projects, supervised executive education seminars and conferences, led experience-sharing groups and conducted global benchmarking projects. As CFO and member of the management board of KMU-HSG he has also been responsible for administrative matters of the institute for many years. Together with Urs Fueglistaller and Roger Tinner, he has been organizing the “KMU-Tag” since 2013 and is responsible for the “Global Family Business Index”, a collection of data on the 500 largest family businesses in the world.
The innovative book discusses the relevance of family firms across the globe, their unique strengths and weaknesses, their most important challenges, their governance, strategic management, the succession process, drivers of long-term success and interpersonal dynamics. Taking a holistic and international perspective, the book combines management concepts, research findings, practical examples and case studies to provide a unique source of insight and inspiration for practitioners in the most prominent type of business organization in the world.
