Dear Colleagues:
Family businesses dominate 70-95% of the business sector in most economies. While they vary in size from Fortune 500 companies (35-40% of which are family firms) to small corner stores, research has shown that these businesses are usually locally oriented and community focused. They have been also shown to have a longer-term focus and a propensity to engage in patient investments. Local and community focus and long-term orientation is a ripe context for adopting a sustainable strategy by firms. Yet this is a research context that has received limited attention from researchers in the areas of organizations and the natural environment or social issues in management. Given the dominance of such firms in most economic sectors in terms of numbers and influence, there is a major opportunity for conceptual and empirical research to expand our understanding about how the community and long-term orientation of such firms can be or is translated into sustainable strategies.
We invite you to develop projects on topics of your interest in the context of family firms and submit them to the 2006 Family Enterprise Research Conference on 28-30 April 2006 at Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. See Call for Papers below.
If you would like feedback on suitability of a paper for the conference, please contact me at
psharma@wlu.ca with either an abstract or a paper.
Looking forward to your submissions and seeing you in Niagara Falls in April 2006!
Pramodita
2006 Family Enterprise Research Conference
28-30 April 2006
Sheraton on the Falls
Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada
Call for Papers
You are cordially invited to participate in the 2006 Family Enterprise Research Conference (FERC) hosted by the Schlegel Center for Entrepreneurship, School of Business & Economics, Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada. All topics relevant to the study of family firms are invited, and both empirical and theoretical studies are encouraged. In addition to papers, panel presentations will include:
- Development of Interesting Research Questions - Mike Lubatkin
- Developing Theory on Family Firms - David Whetten
- Pitfalls of Qualitative & Quantitative Research - Bill Schulze, Alex Stewart
- Research Dissemination: Dos and Donts - Ray Bagby, David Waldman
- Past, Present, & Future of Family Business Studies - Joe Astrachan, Frank Hoy
Please note that proposals for empirical studies should clearly discuss the theoretical underpinnings. The received papers will be blind reviewed for presentations as posters or in a round table discussion format. Members of the 2006 FERC Review Board will evaluate the papers for the clarity of research questions, theoretical soundness of arguments, and research rigor. Papers judged as being closer to journal publication stage will have an option to be included for in-depth discussion lead by senior scholars.
Deadline for Research Papers: <date month="1" day="31" year="2006">January 31, 2006</date>
Notification of Acceptance: Mid-March 2006
Submission Requirements:
- Max. pages: 25 including references, tables, appendices
- Spacing: Body - double-spaced; Appendices single spaced
- Page set-up: 12 point-font, 1 inch margins
- Coversheet: Include contact info for all authors; clarify name of the corresponding author
- Submit by e-mail to Dr. Pramodita Sharma at psharma@wlu.ca
For more information, please contact:
Drs. Pramodita Sharma & Simon Taggar
School of Business & Economics
Wilfrid Laurier University
Waterloo, ON, N2L 3C5 Canada
psharma@wlu.ca
staggar@wlu.ca
And, check our website: