Best Doctoral Dissertation

The Best Doctoral Dissertation Award is given to encourage and recognize outstanding academic achievement in the field of family business study. The Best Dissertation Award is awarded annually after a blind, peer review of all submissions.
Dissertations, including multi-article dissertations, may be on any topic of relevance to the understanding and appreciation of family firms and/or family firm advisors. Dissertations must have been written in English as part of a doctoral course of study at an accredited academic institution and must have been defended in the last 18 months.

The 2024 Best Doctoral Dissertation Award is generously sponsored by the Grossman School of Business at the University of Vermont.

Award: Cash prize of $2,500, one-year membership in FFI, and complimentary registration for the 2024 Annual Global Conference in October

Submit

For a dissertation to be eligible for consideration, the author must adhere to the following guidelines:

  • All materials must be submitted in English and as PDFs.
  • All required fields on the online submission form must be completed and uploaded as directed.
  • All materials submitted must redact all references that would allow for the identification of the author, including the author’s name, the name(s) of the advisor(s), the dissertation committee members, and any affiliated academic institution(s).
  • Submitted materials must include:
    1. Dissertation, which can be a monograph or multi-article dissertation
    2. One page abstract of no more than 120 words
    3. Summary of no more than 20 pages

Submission Deadline: Applications for award submissions open on January 1 of the award year. The deadline for submissions for awards is April 1 of the award year.

Apply Online Here

Applicants will be notified of the decision in writing by June 15 of the submission year. Winners are expected to be present at the FFI annual conference to receive the award.

Award Recipients

2023

Raphaëlle Mattart, Opening The Black Box of Family Constitutions: An Analysis of Their Roles, Drivers and Outcomes in a Business Family Context

2022

Carlotta Benedetti, Authenticity, Multiple Identities and The Self: A Dynamic and Multifaceted Understanding of Family Firms

2021

Nathaniel Hammond, Towards a theory of legacy: The proposal, development, and validation of a family legacy orientation scale

2020

Mira Bloemen-Bekx, Enriching the Early Phases of the Succession Process: An Explanation of the Role of Social Mechanisms in Business Families

2019

Jasper Brinkerink, Innovation Management in Small and Medium-Sized Family Firms: The role of family-induced differences in attitudes and decision models

2018

Jeroen Neckebrouck, The Effects of Ownership Heterogeneity on the Governance of Private Firms: Insights from family firms and private equity

2017

David Jiang, The Family Ties That Bind: Essays That Examine and Extend the Microfoundations of Socioemotional Wealth Theory

Hanqing Fang, Strategic Persistence, Dominant Strategy and Firm Performance in Publicly Traded Family Firms

2016

Joshua Nacht, The Role of the Family Champion

2015

Miriam Bird, The Impact of the Family on Entrepreneurial Outcomes: The role of social embeddedness

2014

Francesco Barbera, Financing Firm Size and Productive Efficiency: The effect of family ownership

2013

Nadine Kammerlander, Organizational Adaptation to Discontinuous Technological Change: The Effects of Family Influence and Organizational Identity

2012

Best Qualitative Dissertation: Annette Rahael for Co-CEOs: An Exploratory Case Study of Shared Leadership in a Family Owned and Operated Business

Best Quantitative Dissertation: Esra Memili for Control-enhancing Corporate Governance Mechanisms: Family versus Non-family Publicly Traded Firms

2011

Ignacio Requejo Puerto, Corporate Governance in Family Firms: Effects of family control on firm value and corporate financial decisions

Honorable Mention: Fabian Bernhard Psychological Ownership in Family Business

2010

Wayne Jeremy Irava, Familiness Qualities, Entrepreneurial Orientation and Long-term Performance Advantage

2009

Sami Alwuhaibi, A Cultural Perspective on the Impact of Family and Society on the Competitive Advantage of Organizations and Nations

2008

Stephanie Brun de Pontet, Using Theories of Control and Self-regulation to Examine the Leadership Transition Between a Parent and Child in Family-Owned Business

2007

Alain Praet, Large Blockholders: Do family firms differ from others? Evidence from the Belgian stock market

Honorable Mention: Chris Graves Venturing Beyond the Backyard: An examination of the internationalization process of Australian small-to-medium sized family-owned manufacturing enterprises

Honorable Mention: Begona Pereira-Otero Family Business vs. Non-Family Business: A status and dynamic analysis of their differences, from characteristics and elements of the strategic process

2006

Naomi Birdthistle, Ph.D., Small Family Businesses as Learning Organisations: An Irish study

Honorable Mention: Thomas Zellweger Risk, Return and Value in the Family Firm

2005

Alberto Gimeno, Performance in the Family Business: A causal study of internal factors and variables

2004

Annika Hall, Strategising in the Context of Genuine Relations

2003

Elmarie Venter, The Succession Process in Small and Medium-Sized Family Businesses in South Africa

2002

Mark L. Hoelscher, The Relationship Between Family Capital and Family Business Performance: Collaboration and conflict as moderators

2001

Denise Kenyon-Rouvinez, Patterns in Serial Business Families: Theory building through global case study research

1998

Daphna F. Raskas

Honorable Mention: Pramodita Sharma Determinants of the satisfaction of the primary stakeholders with the succession process in family firms

1997

Daphna F. Raskas

Jeffrey D. Swartz, Towards a Model of Justice in Ownership Succession: An exploratory study of the intergenerational transfer of family business ownership

1996

Michael Wakefield, Antecedents of Conflicts in Family Firms: An empirical study

1995

Marilyn Elaine Fuss-Reineck, Home to Business and Business to Home: Role carry-over between spouses and family businesses

1994

Christopher Eckrich

1993

Susan T. Ferkany, For the Money: Building business in Monterrey, Mexico

1992

Kevin Seymour, Inter-Generational Relationships in the Family Firm: The effect on leadership succession

1991

Johannes Welsch, An Exploratory Investigation of the Impact of Family Ownership and Involvement on the Management Succession Process in Large Industrial Firms: The human resource management perspective

1990

Wendy Handler

1989

Colette Dumas, Daughters in Family-Owned Businesses – An applied systems perspective