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Tilburg University and PwC continue collaboration in Tilburg Institute for Family Business

Published: 08th March 2022 Last updated: 08th March 2022

Tilburg University and PwC continue their collaboration as part of the Tilburg Institute for Family Business and will work together in education and research on broad themes concerning family-owned businesses. The contract was signed on February 23, 2022. In the next five years, the institute will continue to build on the solid foundation laid over the past five years.

Focusing on the dynamics of family-owned businesses the Tilburg Institute for Family Business conducts research and provides education on this broad subject whereby theory and practice mutually inform each other. In the past five years, a solid foundation has been laid for the continuation of the collaboration. As regards education, more than 150 students have already taken the multi-disciplinary course “Bedrijfsopvolging bij familiebedrijven” [Succession in Family-Owned Businesses], approximately 100 students from various Master’s programs have graduated with a thesis on family firms, and the post-Master’s courses of “Bedrijfsopvolging bij familiebedrijven” and “Commissaris in het familiebedrijf” [Supervisory Directors in Family-Owned Businesses] have been taught several times. In the area of research, much has been going on, too. With more than 40 publications in various fields of research and three PhD projects, a contribution is being made to the development of knowledge on family firms.

Collaboration in Tilburg Institute for Family Business

It is clear that the collaboration has added value given the combination of theory and practice. Tilburg University provides multi-disciplinary research and PwC unlocks the practice of the family business. The power of the Tilburg Institute for Family Business is that important economic, business management, legal, fiscal, and psychological issues concerning family-owned businesses are studied from academic as well as practical perspectives.

Future research

In the coming period, research will be conducted from various perspectives into the special position of family-owned businesses as regards, for example, entrepreneurship (also across generations), the funding of the enterprise, HR policy, governance, and the fiscal opportunities of succession, among other things. Comparative research will be conducted into the position of family-owned businesses abroad. Centralizing the family-owned business and all its aspects and carrying out multi- and interdisciplinary research definitely creates added value. In addition, the Tilburg Institute for Family Business strives to efficiently share the knowledge obtained with stakeholders of family-owned businesses through webinars, courses, master classes, and post-Master’s courses.

 

 

Renate de Lange en Geert Vervaeke

drs. Renate de Lange, member of PwC’s Board of Management

prof. dr. Geert Vervaeke, Dean of Tilburg Law School, Tilburg University

Note to editors

For more information on the Tilburg Institute for Family Business, see the website. If you have any questions, please contact Astrid Kramer, (+31) (0)13-4668218, a.e.kramer@tilburguniversity.edu.