The 16th International Symposium on Entrepreneurship and Family Business was Successfully Held
On November 15th, the 16th International Symposium on Entrepreneurship and Family Business co-hosted by our school, the School of Management, Zhejiang University and the Professional Committee of Entrepreneurship and SME Management, Chinese Academy of Management, was successfully held online. This symposium was also a celebration for the 20th anniversary of the Chinese Family Business Research Center, Sun Yat-sen University.
The symposium's theme is "Family Business - Survival and Development in the Big Crisis", which is not only a topic of historical significance, but also a major issue of important theoretical and practical significance for the sustainable management and innovative growth of family business. The symposium was innovatively held in the form of online conference and was broadcast live online. A total of 110 Chinese and English submissions were received at the conference, and 377 researchers registered for the conference.
Scholars from home and abroad had in-depth exchanges and discussions on cutting-edge hot topics such as "family business innovation and internationalization", "China's industrial transformation and family business", and "family inheritance and governance", etc. Professor Franz Kellermanns from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Professor Alfredo De Massis from the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, and Professor Cai Jiming from the University of Calgary, delivered online speeches and enthusiastically answered questions from Chinese scholars. Professor Cai Li of Jilin University, Professor Fan Bohong of Chinese University of Hong Kong, Professor Chen Ling of Zhejiang University, and Professor Li Xiujuan of China Europe International Business School, etc., respectively gave academic lectures on the topics of digital technology and entrepreneurship, traditional culture and corporate governance, fiction novels as special case of family business transformation, and paternalistic leadership, etc. and received strong response. A total of 23 sub-venues were set up at the conference, and 49 scholars were invited to participate in the discussion and evaluation. The atmosphere of the sub-venues was warm and the discussions were in-depth.
Seven youth scholars, He Xiaogang, Li Weiwen, Dou Junsheng, Wang Lin, Fang Hanqing, Gu Qian and Lian Yanling, who are active in the research field, delivered speeches at the conference, discussing cutting-edge topics of family business research. The conference also specially arranged a journal forum, and invited editors of Management World, Nankai Business Review, Quarterly Journal of Management, and Foreign Economics and Management to discuss how to promote the research and publication of family business. Professor Shang Zengjian - Editor-in-Chief of Management World, called for family businesses to be researched on the macro-system and under cultural background of China's economic transformation. Professor Zhu Hang from the editorial department of Quarterly Journal of Management, introduced how the quarterly journal can help youth scholars with publication, Xu Fangchao - Editor of Nankai Business Review, and Wang Yali - Editor of Foreign Economics and Management introduced the orientation and manuscript requirements of the journal.
At the closing ceremony, Professor Chen Ling announced the winners of the 2020 "Mao Lixiang Family Business Research Achievement Award". The research team led by two youth faculties trained by the China Family Business Research Center, Sun Yat-sen University, won the first prize respectively. The excellent papers selected in this symposium will be recommended to the supporting journals of the conference.
