Course Syllabus for students Spring 2025

On completion of the course the students will be able to:

1. Explain the characteristics and challenges of family businesses.
2. Describe the main theories and concepts within the field of family business research and practice.

3. Analyse practical problems in family business contexts by applying appropriate knowledge resources.
4. Analyse and apply family business theories and concepts to different critical situations in family businesses.

5. Critically evaluate the use of concepts and models used to understand family businesses.
6.Reflect upon common challenges facing family businesses in practice, and develop a way to address these challenges.

This course deals with leading and developing family businesses; the most common type of organization in the world. The course addresses different organizational, strategic and governance aspects of this type of organizations, including the role of owners, family and non- family managers, advisors, board members as well as employees in developing family businesses. We explore key issues related to the dynamics of different types of family business (e.g. both small and large, both private and publicly listed), such as strategy development, governance, culture, management, and more. The course takes an international perspective on these issues.

Connection to research and practice
This course builds on the research excellence and practical relevance of the Centre for Family Entrepreneurship and Ownership, bridging the core competences of JIBS faculty on family business and ownership. The students will have a unique opportunity for applying the most relevant theoretical concepts to examples, cases and experiences from family businesses around the world. The course is specially designed for those who are interested in working in (e.g. as manager) or with (e.g. as advisor and consultant) family businesses.

The course combines lectures and seminars led by professors and researches with guest lectures by managers and/or consultants with long experience. Lectures and seminars require students' active participation. The course may also draw upon experiential learning practices, such as showing and discussing movies.

The course is on-campus.

The teaching is conducted in English.

Bachelor’s degree (i.e the equivalent of 180 ECTS credits at an accredited university) with at least 60 credits in informatics, business administration, computer science, computer engineering, information engineering, or equivalent (or the equivalent).

The course is graded A, B, C, D, E, FX or F.

ILO Assessed through examination:
- Group case study works and presentations (ILOs: 2, 3, 5, 6) representing 3 credits.
- Individual written examination (ILOs: 1, 3, 4, 5) representing 4.5 credits.

Name of the Test	Value	Grading
Group case study works and presentations1	3 credits	A/B/C/D/E/FX/F
Individual written examination1	4.5 credits	A/B/C/D/E/FX/F

¹ All parts of the compulsory examination in the course must be passed with a passing grade (A-E) before a final grade can be set. The final grade of the course is determined by the sum total of points for all parts of the examination in the course (0-100 points). Grade is set in accordance to JIBS grading policy.

It is the responsibility of the examiner to ensure that each course is evaluated. At the outset of the course, the programme evaluators in the course must be contacted. In the middle of the course, the examiner should meet the programme evaluators to identify strengths/weaknesses in the first half of the course.
At the end of the course, the examiner should remind students to fill in the survey. The examiner should also call a meeting with the programme evaluators to debrief the course, based on course evaluation data and comments. The next time the course runs, students should be informed of any measures taken to improve the course based on the previous course evaluations.
At the end of each study period, JIBS’ Director of Quality and Accreditation crafts a “Course Evaluation Quarter Report”, presenting the quantitative results from course evaluation surveys. The Associate Dean of Education, The Associate Deans of Faculty, Programme Directors, and JSA President and Quality receive the report.

Academic integrity
JIBS students are expected to maintain a strong academic integrity. This implies to behave within the boundaries of academic rules and expectations relating to all types of teaching and examination.

Copying someone else’s work is a particularly serious offence and can lead to disciplinary action. When you copy someone else’s work, you are plagiarising. You must not copy sections of work (such as paragraphs, diagrams, tables and words) from any other person, including another student or any other author. Cutting and pasting is a clear example of plagiarism. There is a workshop and online resources to assist you in not plagiarising called the Interactive Anti-Plagiarism Guide.

Other forms of breaking academic integrity include (but are not limited to) adding your name to a project you did not work on (or allowing someone to add their name), cheating on an examination, helping other students to cheat and submitting other students work as your own, and using non-allowed electronic equipment during an examination. All of these make you liable to disciplinary action.

Compulsory Literature
The full list will be supplied at the course introduction.

Recommended Literature
Zellweger, T. (2017). “Managing the Family Business: Theory and Practice”. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar (suggested reading).