The Center for Family Business is dedicated to supporting family and owner-managed firms in the long term. Our expertise is recognised nationally and internationally and we are actively involved in scientific networks.
“Family and owner-managed firms are an important pillar of the economy. Many family and owner-managed firms are characterised by the fact that their flexibility enables them to adapt quickly to changing market conditions and to create long-term value thanks to innovation and creativity. The co-operation with family entrepreneurs intensifies my intrinsic motivation to do research, generate knowledge and to transfer this to the students, who will play an important role in our society in the future.”
“Family and owner-managed firms are very specific enterprises - the entrepreneurial personalities behind the company often play an even more significant role than in the SME sector. They are mostly very unique company and success stories, often spanning several generations, with many changes experienced, which give family firms uniqueness and strength. For me, it is a great enrichment to learn from the exchange with these enterprises and also to experience how individual, concrete solutions can be found from the dialogue.”
Our activities can be divided into categories: research, teaching, and executive education. These activities reinforce each other and let us uniquely combine rigor and relevance. The Center for Family Business was founded as a cross-disciplinary center, and we are able to rely on the resources of the following institutes of the University of St.Gallen:
- Swiss Institute of Small Business and Entrepreneurship (KMU-HSG), Lead
- Institute for Leadership and Human Resource Management (IfPM-HSG)
- Institute of Management (IfB-HSG)
- Research Institute for Organisational Psychology (Opsy-HSG)