2017-2018ACTIVITY REPORT

TEACHING • Guest Lecture Series “The Experience from Two Generations”

at American University of Sharjah

• Panel Sessions

• Students’ Comments

RESEARCH• Published Articles in Academic Peer-Reviewed Journals

• Published Book Chapters

• Published Reports

• Conferences

• Visiting PhD Students at Sheikh Saoud bin Khalid bin Khalid Al-Qassimi Chair in Family Business

• Visiting Research (Dr. Rodrigo Basco)

• Conference Tracks (organization)

• PhD Thesis – External Examiner (Dr. Rodrigo Basco)

• Article Review (Dr. Rodrigo Basco)

KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER• Events

• The Chair in the Press

THE HIGHLIGHT• The First International Conference

“Family Business in the Arab World” Impressions of the Conference (Dr. Rodrigo Basco)

Dr. Rodrigo Basco Sheikh Saoud bin Khalid bin Khalid

Al-Qassimi Chair in Family Business holder

INTRODUCTION

The Sheikh Saoud bin Khalid bin Khalid Al-Qassimi Chair in Family Business at American University of Sharjah (AUS) was established in 2015 with the goal of becoming a recognized family business knowledge hub in regional, national, and international contexts. Our mission is to provide sustainable support to fami-ly firms by creating value for business families and regional communities through research and teaching activities that strive to connect past, present, and future family generations.

The 2017–2018 academic year was a productive and successful time for the Sheikh Saoud bin Khalid bin Khalid Al-Qassimi Chair in Family Business. Our team designed, developed, and promoted a set of research, teaching, and knowl-edge-transfer activities to generate ground-breaking knowledge of family busi-nesses useful for supporting sustainable firms and cohesive and happy families.

The Sheikh Saoud bin Khalid bin Khalid Al-Qassimi Chair in Family Business would like to thank to those individuals and institutions that supported our mis-sion and collaborated in our activities. Our wider commitment to family firms is to boost, expand, and consolidate the regional competitiveness of the Emirates of Sharjah.

TEACHING

Four “Family Business” courses during the academic year 2017-2018. More than 80 students have received education on how to govern and manage family businesses.

Guest Lecture Series “The Experience from Two Generations” at American University of Sharjah

• Guest speaker: Dr. Abdulla Ziad Galadari - Second-generation partner at Galadari Advocates & Legal Consultants.

• Guest speaker: Sheikh Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi and Sheikh Saud Majid Al Qassimi. Al Saud Company Ltd.

Panel Sessions

• “Teaching Family business. Approaches and Contexts”. Panelists: Rodrigo Basco, Albert James, and Horacio Arredondo. Family Enterprise Research Conference 2018 -Universidad Panamericana - Guadalajara- Mexico

“Thank you for the fantastic semester and for all the information and knowledge you helped us gain, which will probably have an impact on our future. I have learned a lot from this course, and I am very happy with this knowledge”.

- Mohamed

“Thank you for a fruitful semester full of insightful knowledge. The course has tremendously changed my attitude about family business, and I be-lieve everyone should embark on a journey to learn about family business because many of us might end up working in one. Again, thank you for a wonderful course”.

- Haya

STUDENTS’ COMMENTS

RESEARCH

Published Articles in Academic Peer-Reviewed Journals

• Calabrò A., Campopiano G., Basco, R. (2017). Principal-Principal Con-flicts and Family Firm Growth: The Moderating Role of Business Family Iden-tity. Journal of Family Business Management 7(3), 291–308.

• Aparicio, G., Basco, R., Iturralde, T., Maseda, A. (2017). An Exploratory Study of Firm Goals in the Context of Family Firms: An Institutional Logics Perspective. Journal of Family Business Strategy, 8(3), 157–169. (Impact Factor: 2.605)

• Basco, R., Calabrò, A., Campopiano, G. (2018). Transgenerational En-trepreneurship Around the World: Implications for Family Business Research and Practice. Journal of Family Business Strategy. Forthcoming. (Impact Fac-tor: 2.605)

• Pongelli, C., Calabrò, A., Basco, R. (2018). Family Firms’ International Make-Or-Buy Decisions: Captive Offshoring, Offshore Outsourcing, and the Role of Home Region Focus. Journal of Business Research. Forthcoming. (Impact factor: 2.509)

• Basco, R. (2017). Where Do You Want to Take Your Family Firm? A Theo-retical and Empirical Exploratory Study of Family Business Goals. Business Research Quarterly 20 (1): 28–44. (Impact Factor: 2.410)

• Elo, M., Sandberg, P. Servais, P., Basco, R., Discua Cruz, A., Riddle, L., Täube F. (2018). Advancing the Views on Migrant and Diaspora Entrepre-neurs in International Entrepreneurship. Journal of International Entrepre-neurship.

“Rising Stars in Family Business Research”. Dr. Rodrigo Basco’s research paper “Where Do You Want to Take Your Family Firm? A Theoretical and Empirical Exploratory Study of Family Business Goals” has been considered by the International Family Enterprise Research Academy (IFERA) to have the potential to shape the future of the family business field. Paper is among the 10 most cited papers published respectively in the last three years.

ACHIEVEMENT

Published Book Chapters• Discua Cruz, A., Basco, R. (2017). A Family Perspective on Entrepreneur-

ship. In N. Turcan & R. Fraser (Eds.), A Handbook of Multidisciplinary Per-spectives on Entrepreneurship. Palgrave.

• Basco, R. (2018). Family Business in Emerging Economies. In R. Grosse & K. Meyer (Eds.), Oxford Hansbook on Management in Emerging Markets. Oxford.

Published Reports

• “Millennials’ Family Business Goals” by Niha Mahmood, Fatemeh Baraz-andeh, Noha Eman, and Rodrigo Basco.

• “Career Intentions by The Next Generation: Initial Findings” by Rodrigo Basco, Rana Hamdan, and Olga Stangej.

Conferences

• Basco, R. “Regional Familiness Model”. Presented at LAEMOS 2018 - IAE Business School Universidad Austral (Buenos Aires, Argentina). March 2018.

• Bassetti, T., Dal Maso, L., Basco, R., Lattanzi, N. “Are Family Businesses Green?”. Presented at 4th Forum for Research in Economics & Finance – American University of Sharjah. Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. May 2018.

• Stangej, O., Basco, R. “Family Business in Emerging Economies”. Present-ed at 14th Workshop on Family Business Management Research. Larnaca, Cyprus. May 2018.

• Muñoz Bullón, F., Sanchez Bueno, M.J., Basco, R., Bassetti, T. “Export and Productivity. The Joint Effect of Family Involvement and Economic Crisis”. Presented at 14th Workshop on Family Business Management Research. Larnaca, Cyprus. May 2018.

• Bassetti, T., Dal Maso, L., Basco, R., Lattanzi, N. “Why do Family Firms Fail to Manage Talent?” Presented at Theories of Family Enterprise Conference (ToFE) - University of Alberta. Alberta, Canada. May 2018.

• Sacristan Navarro, M., Cabeza García, L., Basco, R., Gómez Ansón, S. “It’s also about Culture! The Effect of Formal and Informal Institutional Con-text on Ownership Concentration across European Union”. Presented at 28th ACEDE Conference. Valladolid, Spain.

• Martínez García, I., Basco, R., Gómez Ansón, S. “Dancing with Giant! Contextualizing the Family Ownership Effect on Firm Performance in the GCC Countries”. Presented at Family Enterprise Research Conference (FERC) - Universidad Panamericana. Guadalajara, Mexico. June 2018.

• Bassetti, T., Dal Maso, L., Basco, R., Lattanzi, N. “Why do Family Firms Fail to Manage Talent?” Presented at Family Enterprise Research Conference (FERC) – Universidad Panamericana. Guadalajara, Mexico. June 2018.

• Sacristan Navarro, M., Cabeza García, L., Basco, R., Gómez Ansón, S. “It’s also about Culture! The Effect of Formal and Informal Institutional Context on Ownership Concentration across European Union”. Presented at EURAM 2018 (Reykjavik, Iceland). June 2018.

• Cabeza García, L., Sacristan Navarro, M., Basco, R., Gómez Ansón, S. “Does the Institutional Context Influence Typology of Investors?” Presented at 26th Finance Forum - Universidad de Cantabria. Santander, Spain. July 2018.

• Ricotta, F., Basco, R. “The Presence of Family Firms in the Regions: the Role of the Quality of Regional Institutions”. Presented at 5th Global Conference on Economic Geography. Cologne, Germany. July 2018.

• Martínez García, I., Basco, R., Gómez Ansón, S., Boubakri, N. “Own-ership Concentration in the Gulf Cooperation Council”. Presented at 6th International Conference on Corporate Governance in Emerging Markets. Amsterdam, The Netherlands. July 2018.

• Ricotta, F., Basco, R. “The Presence of Family Firms in the Regions: the Role of the Quality of Regional Institutions”. Presented at 58th ERSA Congress. Cork, Ireland. August 2018.

Irma’s experience: “I benefit greatly from the activities and research environment of the Sheikh Saoud bin Khalid bin Khalid Al Qassimi Chair in Family Business. During my research stay, I had the opportunity to be involved in a research project related to ownership structure in GCC countries, specifically ownership concentra-tion and family ownership.”

Irma Martínez García,PhD candidate from Oviedo

University – Spain. Project: Contextualizing Family

Firms in the Arab World.

Visiting PhD Students at Sheikh Saoud bin Khalid bin Khalid Al-Qassimi Chair in Family Business

Stefano Amato,PhD candidate from

Pisa University – Italy. Project: Family Firms and

Regional Development.

Stefano’s experience: “As far as I am concerned, I consider my visiting PhD experience at the Sheikh Saoud bin Khalid bin Khalid Al-Qassimi Chair in Family Business as the most valuable for my academic development and research ad-vancement. Firstly, the high-quality scientific research on family business studies carried out at the Chair helped me improve my own methodological skills. Even more importantly, this experience offered me the opportunity to investigate promis-ing research topics across different fields. Secondly, I benefit from the international academic network of the Chair. Especially for a PhD student, the creation of strong relationships with the academic community is an essential element for initiating po-tential collaborations and for the advancement of own research activity. Finally, as a student, I came into contact with many undergraduates from whom I perceived widespread satisfaction about the quality of teaching and the usefulness of family business as a management discipline. I strongly believe that my experience at the Chair and, as a whole, at the Department of Management of AUS represented a unique moment for my both professional and human growth.”

Visiting Research (Dr. Rodrigo Basco)

• IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca – Italy. Visiting research. July 2018.

• American University of Beirut – Lebanon. Visiting research funded by Travel Grant 2017-2018 for the project “Succession Intention in the Arab World” provided by the American University of Sharjah. April 2018.

• American University in Cairo – Egypt. Visiting research funded by Travel Grant 2017-2018 for the project “Succession Intention in the Arab World” provided by the American University of Sharjah. November 2017:

ɮ Paper presentation at AUC–research seminar: “Family Business and Talent Management. Why do They Fail?”.

ɮ A talk to undergraduate students at AUC.

ɮ The interview “Visiting Professor Rodrigo Basco discusses importance of family business studies” can be downloaded from: http://schools.aucegypt.edu/business/newsroom/Pages/story.aspx?eid=403

Conference Tracks (organization)

• “Family Business and Regional Development” at LAEMOS 2018. Buenos Aires, Argentina.

• “Family Business and Economic Geography” at the 5th Global Conference on Economic Geography. Cologne, Germany.

Phd Thesis – External Examiner (Dr. Rodrigo Basco)

• Opponent at Evans Korang Adjei’s Thesis Public Defence. Umea University – Sweden. March 2018

• Evaluation Committee Member at Pedro Vazquez’s Thesis Public Defence. Universidad Austral – Argentina. October 2017

Article Review (Dr. Rodrigo Basco)

Journal of Family Business Management, Journal of Family Business Strategy, Family Business Review, International Small Business Journal, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practices, Business Research Quarterly, Management Review Quarterly, Journal of Business Research, European Management Review, Business ethics: A European Review, Small Business Economics, Papers in Regional Science, Strategic Entrepre-neurship Journal, International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research.

KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER

Events• The First International Conference “Family Business in the Arab World” at

American University of Sharjah. 7–8 March 2018

• Global STEP Summit 2017. Track: “Managing the family system and suc-cession process”. Sheikh Saud Al Qassimi and Rodrigo Basco presented the case study “A Model of Changes During Succession Process”. 8–11 November 2017

• Global STEP Summit 2017. STEP Project Panel. Track: “Learning Together Through STEP Survey”. Panelists: Dr. Rodrigo Basco and Dr. James Davis. 8–11 November 2017

The Chair in the Press• “AUS partners with Tharawat Family Business Forum to promote research on

family-owned businesses” – Sharjah 24. 26 September 2017.

• “Encouraging cultural CSR in the UAE” (by Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi) – Gulf News. 20 November 2017. https://gulfnews.com/opinion/think-ers/encouraging-cultural-csr-in-the-uae-1.2127607#.WhR39ACE-WM8.facebook

• “Family Business in the Arab World” (by Rodrigo Basco) – Family Firm Blog. https://familyfirmblog.wordpress.com/2018/03/19/family-business-in-the-arab-world/

• “Family Business in the Arab World Conference begins on a successful note” Eye of Riyadh. http://www.eyeofriyadh.com/news/details/fami-ly-business-in-the-arab-world-conference-begins-on-a-successful-note

THE HIGHLIGHT

The First International Conference “Family Business in the Arab World” 7–8 March 2018, American University of Sharjah

Impressions of the ConferenceBy Dr. Rodrigo Basco

Is there any lesson that can be learned from family business in the Arab World?

This was the question that motivated my curiosity when I decided to lead the first Family Business in the Arab World academic conference in partnership with Thar-awat Family Business Forum and Sharjah Entrepreneurship Center hosted at Amer-ican University of Sharjah. The two-day conference format was a successful event that gathered more than 150 participants, including academics, practitioners, busi-ness families, and students from all around the world. This conference was orga-nized to honor Sheikh Saoud Khalid Al Qassimi’s legacy, a Sharjah businessman who founded a family business back in the 1970s that is now in its third generation.

I opened the academic day with one idea: “I believe that understanding family and business ties by exploring the cultural and historical perspective of the Arab World could bring invaluable inputs to the family business field.” Authors represent-ing universities from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, India, Spain, Oman, Kuwait, Palestine, Tunisia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Sweden, France, Australia, Germany, Morocco, Greece, Egypt, Bahrein, Afghan-istan, Italy, and Malaysia shared their research. This exchange of ideas about how the family business phenomenon is understood in different cultures within the Arab World challenged participants’ knowledge and interpretations of family business management. We discussed a variety of topics, including family business entrepre-neurship, women entrepreneurship, and family business ownership and manage-ment as well as the challenges the next generation of family business members face in the Arab World.

I hope that the rich and colorful debate we had will be reflected in the way we investigate and unpack the role of economic activities in family relationships in the Arab World. It is expected that the outcomes of this conference will be captured in a special issue of the Journal of Family Business Strategy titled Family Business in the Arab World, which will have four guest editors: Rania Labaki, Marcel Bogers, Norris Krueger, and Rodrigo Basco.

The second day had a practical vision and our intention was to debate the chal-lenges of family business in the Arab World with existing business families. We believe that interaction and idea exchange between and among generations is necessary to shape the future of the family and the firm. We are responsible for our family businesses, and this responsibility starts the moment we imagine the future vision of our families and firms.

We had three panels to discuss the future of family business in the Arab World. The first panel focused on the macro perspective to identify the conditions under which family firms operate in the region and the challenges that emerge for family firms. Arab economies are basically, at least to a certain extent, characterized by family business capitalism with differences and similarities that make the model more or less successful. For instance, the development of the UAE was based on family busi-ness along with clear leadership from the state. Family businesses are the backbone of economic and social development in this region. Even though family business capitalism has been a successful model, I wonder to what extent this model can be replicated for the future. There is an economic and social risk of being locked in a family business network without being open to future technological revolutions. It is my personal opinion that the UAE should be able to move from a family business ecosystem to an entrepreneurial family business ecosystem, and we must consider how family businesses in the region can catch up to the technological revolution while simultaneously generating new ideas.

The second panel focused on the innovation perspective at the firm level to identify how family businesses in the Arab World can be protagonist in future national and international economies. The abundance of natural resources in some Arab coun-tries, such as those belonging to Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), were the key advantage to sustain their economic and social development. Is this a successful model for the next 40 years? My answer is no. This model has to be complemented with an open vision of the economy to avoid the traditional Dutch Disease. I believe that this is possible by preparing family business organizations to gradually inno-

vate in products, services, marketing, and management, among other areas. How can we prepare family businesses in the Arab World for open innovation? Family businesses’ embeddedness in the region opens the possibility for them to lead the exchange of ideas by being part of the change. The challenge is to prepare our organizations to adopt open innovation without jeopardizing the principles and values that inspire each organization.

The last panel focused on the entrepreneurial spirit of the new generation of family members. It is in the hands of the new generation of family members in the Arab World to interpret the past, present, and future of their region, understand their position in history, and implement actions that situate their businesses as part of the change. They have to be responsible for leading their family firms and for integrating their firms into the national vision to maintain economic and social development and be part of the bigger community—the global world. The new generation of family business members in the Arab world is responsible for improving communication among family business generations, respecting tradition and preserving values and principles that are part of their culture by being open to new ideas, and leading the change to create a peaceful region with economic and social possibilities for everyone who wants to be part of this ecosystem.

What is the difference between family business in the Arab World and family busi-ness beyond?

The closing of the event was impressive. Anna Helen Northam gave life and voice to Hadrian’s thoughts regarding his successor (he was Roman emperor from 117 to 138). Further, in “Memories of Hadrian,” Marguerite Yourcenar argued that the ba-sic human being condition transcends time and culture: “It is not by blood, anyhow, that man’s true continuity is established: Alexander’s direct heir is Caesar, and not the frail infant born of a Persian princess in an Astatic Citadel; Epaminondas, dying without issue, was right to boast that he had Victories for daughters. Most men who figure in history have but mediocre offspring, or worse; they seem to exhaust within themselves the resource of a race. A father’s affection is almost always in conflict with the interests of a ruler.”

We are human beings, and no matter where we are, we have similar needs, expec-tations, and desires; we are fragile, and we are threatened for by an unpredictable future. In this sense, family businesses across the world are the same. However, fam-ily businesses across the world differ in how they try to satisfy their needs, fulfill their expectations, achieve their desires, and fight against their own ghosts. Differences come from dissimilar cultural patterns, geographical conditions, and historical pat-terns, all of which make us different and make us react in different ways.

Alreem Al AmmariDr. Rodrigo Basco

Student Research Assistants

Dr. Olga Štangej

Rana Hamdan Dima AbdallahRaya Alhawamdeh

Neharika MenonSimran Chowdhry Bilal Awan

TEAMAcademic Year 2017–2018