Going Global. Internationalization Pathways for Family Firms During the 19th and 20th Century

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Going Global. Internationalization Pathways for Family Firms During the 19th and 20th Century

Veranstalter
Christina Lubinski (Harvard Business School), Paloma Fernández Pérez (Dept. d'Història i Institucions. Econòmiques, Universitat de Barcelona), and Jeff Fear (University of Redlands)
Veranstaltungsort
German Historical Institute
Ort
Washington, DC
Land
United States
Vom - Bis
18.02.2011 - 19.02.2011
Deadline
18.02.2011
Website
http://www.ghi-dc.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1052&Itemid=943
Von
Lubinski, Christina

Over the last decades family businesses have started to gain more and more scholarly attention. Instead of conceptualizing the family firm as an historical relic or in opposition to the "modern managerial enterprise" (Chandler), research today investigates the dynamics and challenges that family businesses face during their entire life cycle. Scholars and practitioners are therefore interested in the competitive advantages and disadvantages of family businesses in different national and historical settings.

The conference will contribute to this emerging field of research by focusing on family businesses as international actors. From the 19th century, family businesses have addressed global challenges and have competed in international markets. Therefore, adjustments to their corporate governance have been necessary. Family businesses opened up to external knowledge and capital, often while exploring new strategies to maintain the family's influence. Whereas some family firms have succeeded - for example as "hidden champions" or successful niche producers - others have experienced severe setbacks or have failed.

This conference will gather international scholars in order to discuss different strategies and pathways for internationalization that family businesses pursued during the 19th and 20th century. While contributors are welcome to suggest additional topics related to the overall theme, the participants will address the following questions:
- What competitive advantages and disadvantages did family businesses have in their international ventures? To what extent were the focus on longevity and the long-term family influence an obstacle or an advantage to the internationalization processes? Which role did family, gender and generation relations play in the process of internationalization?
- How did different family businesses go global? Which structures and strategies did those businesses that internationalized successfully employ, and which concepts proved to be less effective? What differences existed between family businesses on different continents in their international activities (e.g. import/export, agencies and production facilities abroad, licensing, joint ventures) and in the choice of target countries?
- Internationalization depends to a significant extent on the availability of venture capital. Family businesses, which strive to remain independent, have limited access to external capital. How, then, did family businesses react to the capital needs of internationalization? What relations did they have to banks, creditors, and the equity market in different national economies; and how did these relations change over time?
- Finally, we believe that globalization builds on local conditions. What framework for internationalization did family businesses rely on in different countries? What role did local learning processes and regional and national communities play for internationalization processes?

Programm

Friday, February 18th, 2011

12-12.30 p.m. Introduction, Christina Lubinski (Harvard, USA):

12.30-2 p.m. Key note lecture, Geoffrey Jones (Harvard, USA): “Family Multinationals in Global Capitalism”
2-2.30 p.m. Coffee Break

2.30-4.30 p.m. Session 1: Concepts of Family Business and Internationalization
Chair: Stefan Link (GHI Washington, USA)
- Andrea Colli (Milan, Italy): “Family Firms in European Economic History”
- Vipin Gupta (California State Univ., USA), “Are Family Firms ‘Reluctant Internationalizers’?”
- Guiseppe Gentile and Raffaella Montera (Salerno, Italy): “The Expansion of Family Business across Borders. Between Familism and Drivers of Internationalization”
4.30-5 p.m. Coffee Break

5-7 p.m. Session 2: Reaching out into the World. Internationalization Pathways in Historical Perspective
Chair: Jan Logemann (GHI Washington, USA)
- Harold James (Princeton, USA): “Family Firms and Cycles of Globalization and Deglobalization”
- Paloma Fernández Pérez, Maria Fernandez Moya and Hui Li (Barcelona, Spain): "Is the Future Going Back? Family Owned Multinationals in China"
- Hartmut Berghoff (GHI Washington, USA): “Becoming Global, Staying Local. The Internationalization of Bertelsmann, 1960-2010”

7-7.15 p.m. Paloma Fernández Pérez (Barcelona, Spain): Presentation of the “Network of Interdisciplinary research in family firms”
8 p.m. Conference Dinner

Saturday, February 19th, 2011

8.30-10.30 a.m. Session 3: Managing Internationalization. Strategies for Global Markets
Chair: Christina Lubinski (Harvard, USA)
- Lisa Lombardi (Geneva, Switzerland): “When DuPont Entered in Mexico (1902-1925)”
- Susanne Hilger (Düsseldorf, Germany): “Shoes for the World” – Internationalization Strategies of Family Firms in the European Shoe Industry before World War II”
- Miguel A. López-Morell (Murcia, Spain): “From Pioneers to Last Mohicans. The Rothschild Family at the Forefront of International Investment Banking”
10.30-11 a.m. Coffee Break

11 a.m.-12.30 p.m. Session 4: Global Expertise. Knowledge, Training, and Education
Chair: Berti Kolbow (Goettingen, Germany)
- Nuria Puig (Madrid, Spain): “Learning to Go Global. Foreign Capital, Business Education and the Internationalization of Spanish Family Firms”
- Susanna Fellman (Helsinki, Finland): “Managing Internationalization. Transforming Training and Recruitment Practices in Finnish Family Firms, 1970-2005”
12.30-2 p.m. Lunch

2-4 p.m. Session 5: The F-Factor. Family Dynamics and Family Ruptures in International Businesses
Chair: Paloma Fernandez Perez (Barcelona, Spain)
- Margrit Schulte Beerbühl (Düsseldorf, Germany): “The Commercial War Against Napoleon: The Spread of International Trading Networks during the Early Years of the Blockades (1803-1808)”
- Luciano Segreto (Florence, Italy): “Creating a Fortune With the Timber Trade: Business, Family Strategy, and Family Unity. The Feltrinelli Case (1854-1942)”
- Anne Overbeck (Münster, Germany): “Two Countries, One Home, One Occupation. The Success of Italian Ice-Cream Makers as a Family Business in Germany, 1900-today”
4 -4.30 p.m. Coffee Break

4.30-6.30 p.m. Session 6: Big Fish in Small Ponds. Family Businesses in International Market Niches
Chair: Jessica Csoma (GHI Washington, USA)
- Jeff Fear (Redlands, USA): “Pocket Multinationals. German Mittelstand Firms Going Global”
- Stefano Agnoletto (London, UK): “A Case Study in Italian Family Business History. The Niche Multinational ‘GERLI’ Company (1867-2010)”
- Gutiérrez Poch Miquel (Barcelona, Spain): “Looking for a Place in the International Market. Success and Failure in European Papermaking Family Firms (1800-2010)”

6.30-7.30 p.m. Conclusion
Round-table: “Internationalization Pathways in Comparative Perspective”, Commentator: Matthias Kipping (Toronto, Canada)

Kontakt

Christina Lubinski, clubinski@hbs.edu

http://www.ghi-dc.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1052&Itemid=943