Events in the Centre for Women's Enterprise, Leadership, Economy & Diversity (WE-LEAD)

Dr Jane Glover, along with Dr Anne Touboulic and Dr Lucy McCarthy developed a session at SCORAI 2018 Sustainable consumption Research and Action Initiative.

Sustainable Consumption: Fostering Good Practices and Confronting the Challenges of the 21st Century 27^th – 30^th June 2018, Copenhagen Business School

Dr Anne Touboulic, Dr Lucy McCarthy, Dr Jane Glover

How beautiful is small? Exploring conceptual dichotomies around sustainable development from a small family firm lens

Dr Touboulic and Dr McCarthy presented a session which highlighted the relevance of adopting a small family firm lens to explore conceptual dichotomies that are central to the notion of sustainable development. These central dichotomies include: tradition/change, rural/urban, short/long-term, fast/slow, stewardship/destruction. We developed this session as we contend that taking the perspective of small family firms will enable researchers to shed light on the multiple dimensions underlying the conceptual tensions presented above. Small family firms make up a large portion of the economic and social fabric of the world economy. They are often presented as facing tremendous resource challenges yet are often at the heart of the development of innovative practices. The session was a platform for discussing ongoing research around these notions explored in the context of small family firms. A roundtable format was adopted to facilitate discussions and we surfaced core themes to build a theoretically grounded and forward-looking research agenda in this space.  We will be taking this agenda forward along with our other work in this important area of creating sustainable family business.

On Friday 20 October Prof Kiran Trehan and Dr Jane Glover attended a workshop at York University Exploring the challenges and opportunities facing family businesses.  Prof Trehan presented two sessions on diversity and ethnic family business: opportunities and challenges with Dr Glover and successful models of academics working with Businesses.

• Find out more about this event here

On Friday 6 October 2017 at the Studio in Birmingham Dr Jane Glover and Prof Kiran Trehan hosted a Family Business Event with help from Eva Lenz.  The half-day session focused on the outcomes from the previous event held on Thursday 14^th September.  The discussions were focused on how the group is going to take forward a collective research grant bid.  Those in attendance confirmed their interest in being involved and also their suggestions as to how to engage the private sector in providing contributions either financial or in kind to any future bid.  Kiran and Jane also discussed the University of Birmingham hosting a conference with a difference and explored how this might be achieved with potential dates circulated for early April 2018.  There was yet again a genuine interest from those who attended and a continued reassurance that this is an area in need of a collaborative commitment from academics and the business community.         

On Thursday 14 September 2017 at the Studio in Birmingham Dr Jane Glover and Prof Kiran Trehan hosted a workshop on Family Business with help from Eva Lenz.  The day was split into two session the in the morning discussion focused on academic research on family business.  The aim of this session was to develop research partnerships with academics and organisations across the UK and internationally to address issues related to how we advance engaged scholarship specifically in the context of family businesses.

The session involved a number of key academics from different disciplines with an interest in family business research.  We had a productive open discussion and there was a genuine buzz and commitment around the topic.  The newly formed group to be known as the F.A.B (Family And Business) includes scholars from University of Birmingham, Lancaster University, Loughborough University and University of Nottingham.  We as a group will be exploring opportunities to host a family business conference F.A.B UK.  If you are a family business researcher and you are interested in joining our research network please contact Jane at J.Glover@bham.ac.uk

In the afternoon, the discussion focused on stakeholders how academics can communicate more effectively with them, how we engage family business in future events.  As a result we will be looking at hosting future short lunch events around specific topics such as communication, networking and succession planning identified as key issues during the afternoon event.  If you are a family business or family business advisor and would like to be kept informed of future event or you would like to collaborate with us on future research projects please contact Jane at J.Glover@bham.ac.uk.

On Wednesday 7 June Dr Jane Glover along with Dr Natalia Verishinia attended the launch of the 2017 Midlands Family Business Awards, at Baresca in Nottingham.  The event introduced the 2017 categories, and detailed the key dates and explained the 2017 entry process.  On September 28^th 2017 Dr Jane Glover spent the day at Nottingham Cricket Ground Judging entrants for the best Small Family Business Award. The competition was very high and the judging panel found it challenging to reach a decision on who should be the winner.  It was a lovely day to see the passion and commitment from families who work together in business.