JIBS researchers honoured at major conference

At the recent Academy of Management conference in Chicago, the world’s largest and most prestigious event in the field of management, several researchers from Jönköping International Business School (JIBS) at Jönköping University were honoured. Mohamed Genedy, Karin Hellerstedt, and Lucia Naldi won the "Best Family Business Paper" award, while Per Davidsson received the "Dedication to Entrepreneurship Award."

The article “Next-Generation Involvement in the Family Business: The Role of Birth Order” by Mohamed Genedy, doctoral candidate, Professor Karin Hellerstedt, and Professor Lucia Naldi, explores the involvement of children in family businesses and their willingness or reluctance to work in and eventually take over the family business.

The researchers found that later-born siblings are more likely to start working in the family business compared to their earlier-born counterparts during their initial career choices. They attribute this to the fact that later-borns tend to have fewer job market-related skills during their early career stages, which is also reflected in their lower high school grades compared to their older siblings.

However, once these siblings start working in the family business, the later-borns are more likely to leave. This can be explained by the relatively higher leadership qualities of the older siblings and the more change-oriented mentality of the later-borns.

“To me personally, as a PhD graduate from JIBS supervised by Lucia and Karin, this award summarizes the tons of efforts we as a coherent research team exerted in this paper. To give you a sense of the competition, our paper competed with nearly 1,000 accepted papers in this largest academic conference for all management scholars, so our propensity to win this is extremely slim. It is definitely a milestone in my nascent academic career,” says Mohamed Genedy.

Innovative and impactful contributions to entrepreneurship research

Professor Per Davidsson was honoured with the "Dedication to Entrepreneurship Award" for his innovative and impactful contributions to entrepreneurship research. The Dedication to Entrepreneurship Award is one of two service awards given by the Academy of Management’s Entrepreneurship Division, the other being the Mentor Award, which Per Davidsson received in 2013. This award recognises contributions made throughout one's career.

“As only one award is given per year, it’s quite prestigious and of course, an honour. I’m proud of the significant role I’ve played in the development of Jönköping International Business School, and naturally, the influence I’ve had on entrepreneurship research both in Sweden and Australia. I’m also proud of the breadth of my contributions whether theoretical, empirical, methodological, or pedagogical, as well as my leadership in research, editorial work, and influence on the practice of entrepreneurship at both the business and policy levels. It feels good,” says Per Davidsson.