Pramodita Sharma, the Sanders Professor for Family Business in the Grossman School of Business, was awarded an honorary doctorate from Jönköping University at the Swedish university’s inauguration and conferment ceremony in May.
Sharma, one of the most frequently cited family business scholars in the world, was awarded the doctorate for her contributions as an internationally leading scholar in the establishment of family business as a legitimate academic field and for her important contributions to the development of research at Jönköping and other universities around the world.
Sharma, co-author of eight books and more than 60 scholarly articles and book chapters on family business studies, was introduced at the ceremony by Leif Melin, the Hamrin Professor of Family Business Strategy at Jönköping and founding director of the Center for Family Enterprise and Ownership. Melin praised Sharma’s research on succession, next generation commitment and entrepreneurial leadership, and for for her scholarly works including the SAGE Handbook of Family Business (2014), described as a "must read" for all family business scholars, and Entrepreneurial Family Firms (Prentice Hall, 2010), a textbook used in family business courses around the world.
Sharma was also recognized for her contributions as editor of the leading academic journal, Family Business Review, which improved its ranking from 37th out of 77 business journals in 2008 when she took it over, to its current No. 8 ranking out of 120 business journals based on its high impact factor.
Sharma, who was awarded an honorary doctorate in 2014 from Witten/Herdecke University in Germany, continues to produce groundbreaking work on family business, including her latest book that came out in June of 2016 titled, Entrepreneurs in Every Generation: How Successful Family Businesses Develop Their Next Leaders.