Family Business Researchers and Experts Share Knowledge at DCU

DCU Centre for Family Business hosted its Family Business Research Workshop and Networking Event for doctoral students and early career researchers on June 4. The event took place at the Business School, where renowned entrepreneurship academics, Professor William B. Gartner and Professor Candida Brush led the discussion on family entrepreneurship and the publishing process.

Bertarelli Foundation Distinguished Professor of Family Entrepreneurship at Babson College, Professor William Gartner stated that studying heterogeneity is central to moving entrepreneurship and family business research forward.

"All entrepreneurial activities are family driven", Professor William Gartner.

"What makes entrepreneurs valuable to the economy is that they are difference generators" according to Prof Gartner. Within the family entrepreneurship space, he suggested a number of key areas for future development including spousal control, family teams and legal issues relating to ownership transfer.

As Senior Editor for Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Prof Brush provided valuable insight into the publishing process for junior academics and early career researchers.

"Writing is a social process", stated Prof Brush. "If there haven't been readers of your paper before you submit, then don't submit".

While there are many challenges to publishing, Professor Brush was keen to emphasise the ways in which authors can increase their chances of publication, including understanding the journal's style and providing a grammatically sound and well formatted manuscript.

Around twenty delegates from Ireland and abroad, including senior academics, early career researchers and PhD students were in attendance. Each attendee had been invited to submit an abridged research paper prior to the event in order to receive constructive feedback from the visiting family business and entrepreneurship academics in a round table discussion. The workshop coincides with the 2018 Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference held between June 6-9th in Waterford Institute of Technology. Find more photos from the workshop on our Flickr gallery.