Corvinus Research Seminar: Entrepreneurship, Legacy, and the Logic of Family Business
Date: March 30, 2026, 15:30-17:00
Venue: Building C, ground floor, Lecture Hall VII.
The lecture will examine family business in relation to entrepreneurship, with particular focus on the concept of socioemotional wealth, the non-financial value that family owners associate with their enterprises, including identity, influence, reputation, legacy, and continuity across generations. It will explore why family businesses often adopt different approaches to opportunities, innovation, risk, and long-term strategy than other firms. Additionally, it will analyse how maintaining family control and values can both facilitate and limit entrepreneurial initiatives. The discussion also distinguishes between founder-led and family-run enterprises, providing a framework for understanding how entrepreneurial behaviour evolves as businesses transition from individual founders to multigenerational family ownership.
Photo source: https://search.asu.edu/profile/10595
About the speaker: Luis R. Gomez-Mejia is the Chair of Leadership and Regents Professor in Management and Entrepreneurship at W. P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University. His research focuses on the relationships of international management, strategic management, executive compensation, and family businesses. One of the most published authors among the “big eight” management journals, he has published more than 280 articles in the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Strategic Management Journal, and Administrative Science Quarterly, among others. Prior to entering academia, Professor Gomez-Mejia worked for eight years in human resources for the city of Minneapolis and Data Control Corp. He has also served as a consultant to numerous organisations, including IBM Corp., DuPont, and Honeywell International Inc. He has consistently appeared on the Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researchers list, ranking in the top 1% of researchers worldwide in economics and business. His research has been cited close to 70,000 times (Google Scholar), with an h-index approaching 100. He has been cited in numerous policy documents worldwide, attesting to the practical impact of his research.
The event is jointly organised by Corvinus’ Institute of Entrepreneurship and Innovation and the Corvinus Institute for Advanced Studies (CIAS), and is funded by CIAS and the Corvinus Research Seminar programme.