It was great to attend the FERC conference again in 2015! Excellent keynote speeches on key issues in family business research, outstanding professors sharing their knowledge and experience with emerging scholars, all in a friendly multi-cultural environment where new research opportunities easily emerge. Don't miss it in the next years!

Salvatore Sciascia, IULM University, Milan
Italy

 

Having the opportunity to network with other family business scholars from around the world expanded my research opportunities. From networking and sharing our interests, since returning from FERC, I've already begun discussions of collaboration with scholars in four different countries.

Jay Orr, Mississippi State University
USA

 

FERC just keeps getting better and better. The research quality is improving, the scholarly discussions are insightful, and the keynote presentations are top-notch. I highly recommend it.

Tom Lumpkin, Whitman School of Management, Syracuse University
USA

 

It was the best FERC I have attended, nice time with old and new friends, great posters and speakers. It really gave me new energy to continue working on developing my academic career on Family Business.

Luis Díaz Matajira, Universidad de los Andes
Colombia

 

FERC 2015 clearly illustrated the fulfilment of the founders' vision when a genuinely international community of family business scholars sharing and learning rigorous yet relevant scholarship came together as supportive colleagues.

Ken Moores, Professor Emeritus, Bond University
Australia

 

We both had wonderful experiences at the FERC 2015 conference: inspiring keynote addresses, creative papers, and terrific people. Thank you all. We plan to be back!

Danny Miller & Isabelle Le Breton-Miller, HEC & University of Alberta
Canada

 

FERC is a unique academic and community opportunity for young and tenured scholars. Those who study family firms should take the challenge to be there. The lively and exciting poster presentation format allows for level of interactions that you usually do not get in a traditional paper presentation. Last but not least, meeting friends and new people (who then will become friends) gives to FERC an additional value-added which is its distinctive characteristic.

Andrea Calabrò, Witten Institute for Family Business, University of Witten/Herdecke
Germany

 

FERC is a great conference devoted to developing new scholars and building a worldwide network of family business researchers. Similar to previous conferences I have attended, the Vermont conference was well-organized and valuable for the field. It was great to see so many of my old friends and get a chance to meet so many new ones. Burlington was also a wonderful venue. The founders and organizers have reason to be proud of the way the FERC has developed.

Jim Chrisman, Mississippi State University
USA

 

FERC 2015 was an energizing experience in many ways. An interesting group of scholars, researchers and outstanding guest speakers sharing ideas and learning from one another. There was a strong sense responsibility in advancing the discipline, yet at the same time we had a great time together.

Juan O. Rivera-Algarin, Inter American University
Puerto Rico

 

The 11th Annual FERC was the first time we attended this conference and felt that it is very important in our professional careers. Poster format sessions have enriched our work through the opinions of the participants. We will try to participate in next years, as it is a good opportunity to find a community of experts in family business with so much knowledge about the topic.

Ascensión Barroso & Ramón Sanguino, Universidad de Extremadura
SPAIN

 

FERC 2015 was fantastic! Wonderfully organized, and as usual I appreciated the sense of community, a warm welcome, and helpful feedback on research. Thank you to the conference organizers and Chairs of the Career Day and Academic program!

Kathleen Randerson, EDC Paris Business School & EMLyon Business School
France

 

The 2015 Conference was my first participation in FERC and I am more than pleased with the experience. The feedback we received allowed us to see new prospects and strengthen our motivation to continue improving our work. In FERC I was able to interact with academics with extensive experience, as well as others like me, who are beginning to grow in this area. For me, FERC constitutes an opportunity that cannot be missed to learn, make contacts from different parts of the world and improve research.

Ana Cristina González, Universidad Icesi
Colombia

 

FERC was a great introduction into the field of family business. The Career Academy offered a chance to interact with and hear from top family business scholars about the current state and future direction of the field. The conference provided a comfortable environment for networking where everyone was approachable and genuinely interested in the work you are doing. I would highly recommend the conference and Career Academy, especially for those just starting to conduct research in the area of family business.

Ray Jones, University of Minnesota Duluth
USA

 

I have not attended FERC for a few years, which was a grave mistake. From the career academy to the poster presentations, from the shared lunches to the key-note speeches, FERC has offered me ample opportunities to discuss my papers, learn about intriguing new research ideas, and socialize with top-notch academics and promising newcomers. The well-organized conference offered the right balance between learning and mentoring, academia and application. If you are interested in family business, you should attend FERC. I will surely return next year.

Peter Jaskiewicz, John Molson School of Business, Concordia University
Canada

 

June 17, 2015

 

"FERC is definitely one of the most inspiring conferences I know. The feedback, provided in the doctoral consortium as well as during the main conference, is always constructive and most helpful. Furthermore, FERC is a great opportunity to network. Personally, I have met several scholars at FERC, which later became co-authors on joint projects."

Dr. Nadine Kammerlander, Center for Family Business,
University of St. Gallen, Switzerland

 

"FERC is a very democratic forum where you can meet a community of passionate and serious family business scholars and have fruitful discussions about research ideas in a very collegial spirit. It offers a great opportunity for constructive feedback, for networking and for getting in touch with practitioners and family business owners as well. It is one of the family business conferences that I always try to attend."

Alfredo De Massis, Director of the Centre for Family Business, IEED, Lancaster University Management School, U.K.

 

"FERC was crucial for my career development. It gave me the opportunity to interact and create strong bonds with many top family business scholars, initiate new research projects with FERC participants, and get great valuable feedback about my work from many colleagues. The relaxed atmosphere and friendly environment of FERC enable all of us to gain a lot both from a professional and personal point of view. Thank you all for organizing this event year by year."

Francesco Chirico, PhD Associate Professor, Jonkoping International Business School, Center for Family Enterprise and Ownership - CeFEO, Jonkoping, Sweden

 

May 20, 2014

 

"I love the poster presentation format: some of my papers were published also because experienced scholars stopped in front of my posters and provided invaluable guidance at FERC."

Salvatore Sciascia
Università IULM - Milano

 

"I consider attending FERC conferences an essential part of my scholarly activities. All aspects of the conference- the consortium, the keynote speeches, the practitioner round-tables, the scholarly program are professionally developmental and thought-provoking. I have found FERC attendees encouraging, supportive, and a resource for feedback, especially since we do not have other family business scholars at my university. And every year the conference gets better!"

Manisha Singal
Pamplin College of Business
Virginia Tech University

 

"FERC was crucial for my career development. It gave me the opportunity to interact and create strong bonds with many top family business scholars, initiate new research projects with FERC participants, and get great valuable feedback about my work from many colleagues. The relaxed atmosphere and friendly environment of FERC enable all of us to gain a lot both from a professional and personal point of view. Thank you all for organizing this event year by year."

Francesco Chirico, PhD
Associate Professor
Jonkoping International Business School
Center for Family Enterprise and Ownership - CeFEO
Jonkoping, Sweden

 

"What FERC has done for me is let me meet some wonderful people from around the world who are truly focused on family business research. Many of these people I would have never met at any other meeting in management or entrepreneurship. Several of these individuals I have now written with or have contributed to books that I have edited. The best thing about FERC is the network of colleagues."

Alan L. Carsrud, Ph.D., Ec.D. (hc)
Carsrud & Associates, Consultants to Entrepreneurs & Family Firms
Visiting Research Professor, Abo Akademi University
Associate Editor, Journal of Small Business Management.

 

"FERC is a very democratic forum where you can meet a community of passionate and serious family business scholars and have fruitful discussions about research ideas in a very collegial spirit. It offers a great opportunity for constructive feedback, for networking and for getting in touch with practitioners and family business owners as well. It is one of the family business conferences that I always try to attend."

Alfredo De Massis,
Director of the Centre for Family Business, IEED,
Lancaster University Management School, U.K.

 

"FERC focuses on the development of family business research. The conversations that take place when displaying collaborative work allow for ideas to get challenged, discussed and advanced. Nearly finished papers, work-in-progress or even an emerging perspective around family business research benefits tremendously from such an engagement. It is an experience that enriches your work and helps forge lasting relationships in academia."

Allan Discua Cruz, PhD.
Lecturer in Entrepreneurship, Institute for Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development
Lancaster University Management School, UK

 

"Attending FERC has been extremely useful to connect with family business scholars and to get constructive feedback on my research. The poster format and the pitch competition of practitioner focused papers are the two things that make FERC unique as well as extremely helpful for developing theoretically sound, empirically rigorous and practically useful knowledge about family firms."

Josip Kotlar,
Lecturer in Family Business,
Lancaster University Management School