114/09/30-10/05

Paper Presentation at the 2025 EIASM Family Business Management Research Workshop

Professor Chiung-Wen Tsao from the Center for Strategy and Human Capital Research, National Sun Yat-sen University (also Professor in the Department of Business and Management at National University of Tainan), attended the 20th EIASM Workshop on Family Firm Management Research in Jönköping, Sweden, from October 2 to 3, 2025, and presented two research papers exploring organizational resilience and succession governance in family firms during times of crisis.

The workshop, hosted by Jönköping International Business School (JIBS) and its Centre for Family Entrepreneurship and Ownership (CeFEO), is one of Europe’s most prestigious academic platforms for family-business research. The 2025 workshop also marked the 20th anniversary of CeFEO.

This year’s theme, “Echoes from the Past, Foundation for the Future: Legacy as a Catalyst in Family Entrepreneurship,” emphasized in-depth dialogue and peer feedback in a small-group workshop format. The event featured three keynote sessions and fourteen paper sessions, with each paper allocated thirty minutes for presentation and discussion, fostering intensive exchanges among researchers from around the world.

Opening Ceremony

Study 1: How Family Firms Sustain Operations and Plan Succession Amid Crisis

Professor Tsao and her research team presented “Resilience in the Time of Crisis: Dynamic Managerial Capabilities, Succession Planning, and Resilience in Family-Run SMEs During COVID-19.”The study examined family-run SMEs operating for more than 15 years in Taiwan, Latvia, and Lithuania, analyzing how firms facing major external shocks (such as COVID-19) and internal leadership transitions leverage dynamic managerial capabilities and succession planning to build resilience and sustain business continuity.

Study 2: Why Family Firms Choose Family Successors or Professional CEOs

The second paper, titled “Why Blood Is Thicker Than Water: How Extended and Restricted SEW Shape Succession Planning and Family CEO Appointment in Family Firms,” explored the rationale behind whether a family firm appoints a family member or a professional manager as its next CEO.Based on a sample of 191 publicly listed family firms in Taiwan, the study analyzed succession decisions through the lens of Socio-emotional Wealth (SEW) and distinguished between two orientations:

Extended SEW: emphasizes professionalism, long-term governance, and business sustainability.

Restricted SEW: prioritizes family control and emotional continuity.

Findings indicate that both family ownership structures and family involvement in management influence CEO succession paths differently. Firms emphasizing long-term stability tend to pursue more institutionalized succession planning, whereas those emphasizing family control may prefer daily involvement of family members, which, while preserving control, could sometimes hinder formalized governance mechanisms.

Networking: Strengthening Links with the European Family Business Research Community

The workshop gathered scholars specializing in family business, corporate governance, succession, transgenerational capital, and family influence. In addition to presenting her papers, Professor Tsao engaged in in-depth discussions with researchers from JIBS and the organizing team, receiving valuable feedback on qualitative methods, cross-national comparative designs, and cultural differences in family business governance between East Asia and Europe. These exchanges fostered potential future collaborations.

Future Collaboration

Beyond the formal sessions, Professor Tsao met with Associate Professor María José Parada, Academic Director of the Global Business Family Initiative at ESADE Business School (Spain), to discuss future collaboration. The meeting explored possible cooperation between the two research centers under a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) framework, including joint research, faculty exchange, and student mobility programs.

Through participation in the EIASM Workshop on Family Firm Management Research, National Sun Yat-sen University demonstrated its research strengths in succession governance, dynamic managerial capabilities, and family business resilience. Moreover, the Center continues to cultivate international partnerships with scholars from Sweden, Lithuania, Latvia, and Spain, paving the way for future joint research, academic exchange, and global knowledge sharing.

A photo of Prof. Chiung-Wen Tsao (left) with Assoc. Prof. María José Parada (right), Academic Director of the Global Business Family Initiative, ESADE Business School (Spain).