Online Course Guide of WHU –
Find all modules and courses of our degree programs.
Please use the filters below to select the term (spring or fall) as well as the respective program (BSc, MSc, MBA, Exchange, Doctoral) of your choice for an overview of all modules offered at WHU. The courses are listed under the modules. Please click on a module to see which courses are part of it. If you would like to find out more about a certain course, click on the name of the course to see detail information. The location of the lecture will be revealed after your course registration on myWHUstudies.
Spring term counts from January - August, fall term counts from September - December.
Important for Exchange Students: As the Full-Time and Part-Time MBA Programs utilize a modular course structure, the dates on which students begin and end the exchange are flexible. Please find here a chronological overview of the preliminary course offering for Fall and Spring.
Managing the Family Business
(Please note that exchange students obtain a higher number of credits in the BSc-program at WHU than listed here. For further information please contact directly the International Relations Office.)
Course Content
- Term definition, meaning and characteristics of family businesses
- Differences between family businesses and non-family businesses, especially in relation to goals, long-term orientation, structure, and resources
- Concepts and frameworks to work with family firms
- Strategic management of the business owning family and the family-owned business, in particular focus on topics related to: leadership, succession, and governance
- Transgenerational entrepreneurship: How can family firms remain entrepreneurial over time
Contact person: Barbara Wallrafen b.wallrafen@petermay-fbc.com
Class Dates
Date
Time
Learning Outcomes
- Understand the need to balance short- and long-term decisions and to balance individual and collective needs within a society and its economy
- Be sensitive to transgenerational outcomes of short-term decisions
- Having a basic understanding of the specific challenges for family businesses, understanding the characteristics of family firms
- Learn about frameworks of how to lead or consult a family firm
- Learn about concrete examples of family firms and their challenges
- Learn about working with case studies
- Being able to engage in group work
- Being able to present and defend findings
Literature
Murmann Verlag, Hamburg 2017