- To familiarize students with the unique management practices and challenges (e.g., in relation to governance, succession, and innovation) of firms that are owned and controlled by members of the founding-family.
- To discuss theoretical frameworks and models that will enable students to analyze and assess the strategic choices, trade-offs, and problems of these family- and founder-driven enterprises.
- To allow students to apply the academic knowledge they gain to case studies as well as to a real-life founding-family controlled enterprise.

The majority of SMEs are owned and controlled by members of the founding-family, and this type of control is associated with various distinctive advantages and challenges. This course addresses the importance and distinctive nature of these enterprises, and familiarizes students with central theories (e.g., socioemotional wealth theory, agency theory, stewardship theory) and topics (e.g., succession, governance, entrepreneurship and innovation) covered in the academic literature on founding-family ownership and control. While the focus of this course is on examining how founding-family ownership influences business practices, comparisons will be made between lone founder firms vs. founder firms with family influence vs. later generation family firms. The course uses a combination of topical readings, presentations, case discussions, and assignments to explore the unique dynamics of these family- and founder-driven enterprises.

Academic journal articles; Case studies

This course has been cancelled.

The following rule applies to students who started one of the following programmes/specialisations prior to academic year 2020/21
TRANSITIONAL REGULATION (EBC4127):
Only for students who started one of the following programmes/specialisations prior to academic year 2020/21:
* Master Business Research - No specialisation (Note: only if you are taking "Entrepreneurship and SME Management" disciplinary courses!)
* Master International Business - Entrepreneurship and SME Management
You can EITHER do the exam/resit of EBC4217 OR replace the course EBC4217 with "Strategic Entrepreneurship and Innovation" (EBC4041), "Business Innovation and Sustainable Development" (EBC4106), or "Digital Entrepreneurship" (EBC4266).