Global Center for Family Enterprise

2ND AUGUST 2022
BEST TEACHING AWARD 2022 ASSIGNED TO JANNIS VON NITZSCH

We are glad to announce that Ph.D. student Jannis von Nitzsch (Professorship Entrepreneurship & Family Enterprise, Prof. Miriam Bird) has received the Best Teaching Award 2022 awarded by the TUM School of Management among all faculty and scientific employees for the “Advanced Seminar in Innovation & Entrepreneurship: Corporate Entrepreneurship”.

Jannis is grateful for this recognition as it shows how dedicated Jannis and all other team members are in implementing innovative cutting-edge teaching methods within our courses and lectures to ensure students’ learning. As one of our students puts it: “This is the best course I have ever taken”.

Congratulations, Jannis, well deserved!

31ST AUGUST 2021
JANNIS VON NITZSCH WINS BEST REVIEWER AWARD 2021

Congratulations to our Ph.D. student Jannis von Nitzsch for receiving the Best Reviewer Award 2021 in the Entrepreneurship Division of the 81st Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management. This award is assigned to scholars who provide excellent feedback to the working papers submitted to conference. This year participants from all of the world discussed the theme “Bringing the Manager back in Management”. We enjoyed exciting talks and discussions and already look forward to next year!

17TH NOVEMBER 2020
PAPER OF PROF. BIRD IS THE WINNER OF THE EBS BEST PAPER AWARD

The paper “When the former CEO stays on board: The role of the predecessor’s board retention for product innovation in family firms” (Stephanie Querbach, Miriam Bird, Priscilla Sarai Kraft, and Nadine Kammerlander) won the EBS Best Paper Award which recognizes outstanding research articles with practical relevance in innovation, entrepreneurship and transformation.

15TH OCTOBER 2020
PAPER OF PROF. DR. MIRIAM BIRD NOMINATED FOR EBS BEST PAPER AWARD

The recently published paper “When the former CEO stays on board: The role of the predecessor’s board retention for product innovation in family firms” (Stephanie Querbach, Miriam Bird, Priscilla Sarai Kraft, and Nadine Kammerlander) is nominated for the EBS Best Paper Award 2020. The paper will be presented during the award ceremony on November 17^th, 2020. Papers with outstanding scientific and practical contribution on innovation, entrepreneurship and transformation are honored each year with the EBS Best Paper Award.

25TH JANUARY 2022
“THE ESSENTIALS OF CONTRACT NEGOTIATION” NOW AVAILABLE IN SPANISH

The new book “Claves para la negociación de contratos” of Prof. Stefanie Jung and Prof. Peter Krebs (University of Siegen) has just been released.
Now you can read about the essentials of contract negotiations in Spanish, English and German. We are looking forward to discussing best practices in negotiations now in three languages. Find the book here and take a look inside.

5TH OCTOBER 2021
EUROPEAN BUSINESS LAW REVIEW – NEW ARTICLE

We are pleased to share with you the new article by Professor Stefanie Jung and Professor Peter Krebs (University of Siegen): “Reconsideration of the European Groups Law”. So far, the EU has not yet established rules governing company groups. Given the possible benefits of such a regulation, the paper proposes a new concept for a legally binding European group law. The proposal aims to develop an innovative concept that is both, practicable for the parent company in the sense of an enabling law, and which simultaneously protects minority shareholders and creditors. In this context, the article also discusses group solidarity.

13TH JULY 2021
NEW ARTICLE OF PROF. JUNG AND MICHAEL MATEJEK

Prof. Stefanie Jung  and Michael Matejek released a new publication: „Multidimensionalität von (Mediations-)Verhandlungen“. This first part of the paper deals with the challenges of the multidimensionality of the BATNA (Best Alternative to Negotiated Agreement) and the ZOPA (Zone of Possible Agreement) in contract negotiations. The second part of the article will then address possible solutions for dealing with these challenges.

9TH MARCH 2021
PROF. JUNG’S PUBLICATION: FEELING OF JUSTICE IN BUSINESS CONTRACTS

Prof. Stefanie Jung’s new article “Das Rechtsgefühl im unternehmerischen Vertragsrecht“ deals with the sense of justice in business contracts. The article demonstrates that this feeling can be measured empirically. In summary, it is argued that the observed “Rechtsgefühl” should be used as an argument in contract law when there is room for interpretation.  

8TH FEBRUARY 2021
NEW ARTICLE BY PROF. JUNG: THE PANDEMIC’S INFUENCES ON TENANCY LAW

Professor Stefanie Jung’s new article “Coronabedingte Störung der Geschäftsgrundlage bei gewerblichen Miet- und Pachtverhältnissen – Gesetzesänderung bleibt auf halbem Wege stehen” is published now. In short: the Corona pandemic forced the German government to close almost all types of businesses. Some are struggling to pay their rent now. Federal lawmakers had already prohibited the revocation of leases and rental agreements for nonperformance during the first lockdown caused by the pandemic’s aftermath, so it was unclear whether the rules on contract frustration still applied – a new law now declares them applicable.

16TH DECEMBER 2020
NEW ARTICLE OF PROF. JUNG PUBLISHED

Prof. Jung recently published the new article “European Legal Forms – Underlying Systematic and Principles”.
The article examines the historical development of European legal forms such as the Societas Europaea (SE), their significance in practice, their effect on the competition between EU and national level and the regulatory techniques used to deal with the multi-level challenges.

20TH JUNE 2020
PROF. DR. MIRIAM BIRD JOINS THE EDITORIAL BOARD OF JOURNAL OF BUSINESS VENTURING

Miriam Bird has been selected to join the editorial review board of Journal of Business Venturing (JBV). JBV is one of the top-tier journals publishing entrepreneurship research. More information can be found here.

10TH JUNE 2020
NEW PUBLICATION BY PROF. DR. MIRIAM BIRD

Former owner-managers often “stay on board” after succession has taken place in small- and medium-sized family firms. But is that a good idea? In the newly published JPIM Journal of Product Innovation Management article “When the Former CEO Stays on Board: The Role of the Predecessor’s Board Retention for Product Innovation in Family Firms”, Prof. Dr. Miriam Bird and her co-authors aim to answer this question (joint study by Stephanie Querbach, Miriam Bird, Priscilla Sarai Kraft, and Nadine Kammerlander): The study can be found here.

28TH APRIL 2023
GIRLS DAY AT TUM CAMPUS HEILBRONN

The Girls' Day is an annual, nationwide career orientation day for girls from the 5th grade onwards. The TUM Heilbronn Campus opened its doors on April 27, 2023, and offered 50 girls an insight into careers as researchers in a panel discussion with professors and scientific staff. In addition to Prof. Dr. Luise Pufahl, Karoline Bax, PhD, and Dr. Franziska Schmidt, PhD Candidate research associate Sidney Hribersek from the Global Center for Family Enterprise talked about her career path and her enthusiasm for a career in science. She also answered questions about her daily tasks and research topics to give young girls a realistic insight into her professional life and to inspire them in their search for their own career path.

7TH NOVEMBER 2022
FIRST IN-PERSON EVENT FOR FAMILY ENTREPRENEURS AT TUM CAMPUS HEILBRONN

The event included insightful talks by Prof. Dr. Miriam Bird, Dr. Gunther Wobser and Christian Mohr who illustrated the topic from an academic and practical point of view. Those talks were followed by a panel discussion on the challenges of implementing corporate entrepreneurship in family businesses.
In case you would like to learn more about our cooperation offers for family entrepreneurs feel free to contact us at: office.gcfe@mgt.tum.de.

4TH OCTOBER 2022
NEW VENTURE TEAM DESIGN CONFERENCE AT TUM CAMPUS HEILBRONN

On September 29-30, we welcomed participants from all over the world to the research conference "New Venture Team Design" at the TUM Campus Heilbronn. Prof. Dr. Miriam Bird (Director of Global Center for Family Enterprise), Prof. Dr. Rebecca Preller (University of Bayreuth) and Dr. Paula Martínez-Sanchis (Post-Doc at Global Center for Family Enterprise) organized the conference in cooperation with the DFG network group "Venturing Together" - represented by Prof. Dr. Nicola Breugst and Dr. Isabell Stamm - to discuss the fundamental question of how to design new venture teams in a way that is conducive to firm success. The program entailed keynotes by Prof. Dr. Vangelis Souitaris (Bayes Business School) and Prof. Dr. Ella Miron-Spektor (INSEAD) on new venture team diversity and team formation, respectively. Further, participants discussed various topics like power inequality, emotional diversity, identity conflicts, or feedback processing in new venture teams, and used the opportunity of networking with the other participants

12TH SEPTEMBER 2022
WORKSHOP ON FIELD EXPERIMENTS IN ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS AT TUM CAMPUS HEILBRONN

On September 5-6, we welcomed participants from all over the world to our first Workshop on Field Experiments in Economics and Business at the TUM Campus Heilbronn organized by our professor of economics Philipp Lergetporer, Simon Wiederhold, Henning Hermes, and Frauke Peter.

10TH NOVEMBER 2021
TUM CONNECT IN HEILBRONN

Last week, our center director Prof. Miriam Bird participated as one of the four thematic experts in the topic of Family Enterprises at this event series. She represented the “Speakers Corner” about the topic of “Family Enterprises and their Innovation capability”. In a discussion round, we had a fruitful and lively exchange of ideas and opinions together with interested guests. The main conclusions in a nutshell:
• Employees are the key to innovation, especially in family businesses where there is a high identification with the company.
• To realize the greatest possible potential of employees, groups such as females and older employee generations need to be given more consideration as valuable resource.
• Alliances and synergies must be created across SMEs to leverage synergies.

20TH OCTOBER 2021
TUM TALK AT CAMPUS HEILBRONN

The second TUM Talk took place on the TUM Campus Heilbronn themed “Family businesses in transition”. We, the GCFE with our center director Prof. Miriam Bird were responsible for the concept and content of the event.
In front of the 100 guests in presence as well as the numerous spectators in the livestream, the designated company successor Sarna Röser of Karl Röser & Sohn GmbH held a thrilling keynote on the topic “Tomorrow’s leaders”.
An exciting evening with a valuable exchange during which we learned one lesson above all: Family businesses as the jewel of the German economy need the impulse of the new generation to continue to survive in the long-term. Especially for our research team, the evening offered interesting impressions and approaches that motivate us to work on new strategies for today’s challenges in cooperation between practice and research.

16TH NOVEMBER 2020
FOUNDERS WEEK IN HEILBRONN: PROF. BIRD TALKS AT STARTUPCITY X EXPERTS ABOUT ENTREPRENEURIAL TEAM FORMATION

During this year’s founders week, Prof. Bird was invited to talk at the StartupCity Meets Experts Event in Heilbronn. Talking to entrepreneurs, Prof. Bird explained how the ideal entrepreneurial team should be formed and which aspects should be considered in designing a successful team. The local newspaper Heilbronner Stimme summarized the main findings in the following article.

15TH SEPTEMBER 2021
NEW PROFESSOR FOR ECONOMICS

We warmly welcome Prof. Dr. Philipp Lergetporer as a new member of the GCFE! He will teach in the field of economics and thus enriches the team of professors with another discipline.
He is an empirical economist who conducts policy-relevant research at the intersection of education economics, public economics, and behavioral economics. We are looking forward to a good collaboration, discovering new synergies with other areas and interesting teaching sessions.
We wish him a good start at the GCFE!

1ST SEPTEMBER 2020
THE GLOBAL CENTER FOR FAMILY ENTERPRISE IS GROWING

We warmly welcome Sidney Hribersek as new scientific employee of Prof. Bird and Bernadette Boehl and Lina María Gélvez Álvarez as new part of the scientific staff of Prof. Jung. In addition, we welcome Christina Kößmeier as our center manager and Lena Vorsatz as team assistant human resources & infrastructure.

We wish all our new team members a good start at the GCFE.

27TH AUGUST 2021
RESEARCH GRANT OF THE SWISS NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION

We are proud to announce that Prof. Miriam Bird has been awarded a prestigious research grant of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). In the next four years, the research project will study how venture teams should be designed to achieve firm growth and survival. The study of new venture team design needs to move beyond static perspectives of founding team composition by addressing elements of power distributions within new venture teams, the role of employees in complementing the entrepreneurial team and team dynamics such as entrepreneurial team turnover events. We are looking forward to hosting this cross-university collaboration at the GCFE.

10TH AUGUST 2021
HANIX MAGAZINE INTERVIEWS PROF. JUNG

A newly published article in the local Heilbronn magazine “Hanix” discusses the topic of rationality of lying. As an expert in the field of contract negotiations, Prof. Dr. Stefanie Jung talks in the interview about the phenomenon of lies, bluffs, and their consequences in business negotiations. In short: Lies in business-to-business negotiations are relatively common. Negotiators bluff among other aspects about their reservation price, deadlines, preferences, better offers, and the availability of their products. Such lies are regularly told for one’s own benefit. However, some of these bluffs are still considered to be morally acceptable by professional negotiators, lawyers, and judges. These moral beliefs have to be distinguished from legal beliefs, i.e. which legal consequences people favor. People tend to only advocate legal consequences for severe misrepresentations like bluffs about the contract object (e.g the machine to be sold), the price, or the legal situation.

4TH FEBRUARY 2021
IN THE NEWS: PROF. BIRD TALKS ABOUT FEMALE SUCCESSION IN FAMILY BUSINESSES

A newly published article in the magazine Hanix discusses the topic of “female” succession within German family businesses. As expert in the field of succession in family businesses, Prof. Dr. Miriam Bird talks in the interview about the phenomenon of “female successors”. Given the lack of successors for family businesses, those firms need to be open to also appoint female successors. Females from the family often incorporate higher levels family values, leadership qualities, traditions as well as diverse backgrounds than successors coming from outside the family. In short: family businesses need to recognize the potential of female family members to succeed across generations. The link to the article can be found here.

24TH NOVEMBER 2020
GLOBAL CENTER FOR FAMILY ENTERPRISE NOW ON LINKEDIN

From now on, we are also active on social media. On our LinkedIn page TUM Global Center for Family Enterprise, we will share more about our work and activities. You can find us here.

27TH OCTOBER 2020
IN THE NEWS: PROF. DR. MIRIAM BIRD TALKS ABOUT THE COMPATIBILITY OF FAMILY AND CAREER

Managing career and family is the topic that Prof. Miriam Bird, and two other experts, are discussing this week in an article in the local newspaper “Heilbronner Stimme”. As professor and director of the Global Center for Family Enterprise, and even in the role of a young mother, Prof. Miriam Bird discusses the challenges and possible solutions for how females can handle this issue. The link to the article can be found here.

18TH AUGUST 2020
NEW TEACHING CONCEPT FOR THE WINTER TERM 2020/2021

In response to the Covid-19 crisis, our team at the Global Center for Family Enterprise is working on an innovative teaching concept using the latest technologies for the winter semester 2020/2021.
We are looking forward to welcoming our students in the winter term!