Studies | WIFU – Wittener Institut für Familienunternehmen

Ownership Competence in Business Families

Successful multigenerational family businesses ensure that family members who make, support or influence decisions in the business or the family are capable of successfully performing their roles. This requires a...

Female Successors: The Exception rather than the Rule

In family businesses, women in management positions are no longer the exception, as a growing number of female entrepreneurs are able to combine family and work. But can such a...

Collaboration between Start-Ups and Family Businesses

In the WIFU study ‘Collaboration Between Start-ups and Family Businesses’, a research team led by Dr Anne K. Heider examines the motives and expectations of start-ups in cooperating with family...

The Business Family and its Family Strategy

How do German family businesses shape the relationship between family businesses and business families? This study examines the status quo of family strategies in business families. The objective of this...

Sustainability in Family Businesses

In the WIFU study ‘Sustainability in Family Businesses’, Prof. Dr Marcel Hülsbeck and his co-authors Prof. Dr Andreas Hack, Dr Maike Gerken and Robin-Alexander Ernst researched the sustainability activities pursued...

J.D. Neuhaus: Hoists and Cranes Engineered for Extremes over Seven Generations

‘J.D. Neuhaus: Hoists and Cranes Engineered for Extremes Over Seven Generations’ – Anne K. Heider and Wilfried Neuhaus-Galladé (J.D. Neuhaus GmbH & Co. KG) presented this case study at the...

What really matters to family entrepreneurs?

In the main section of this anniversary publication, we present the results of a new WIFU study on the current situation of family businesses in Germany. We asked members of...

Behavioral and Cultural Aspects of German Family Firms Internationalizing to China and India

Language, culture and network: only those who take such specific circumstances into account will become established in foreign markets. For that purpose, economic efficiency is only one of several factors...