A paper co-authored by Professor Ken Moores and Dr Justin Craig, co-directors of Bond’s Australian Centre for Family Business (ACFB), has recently been awarded the Best policy-orientated research paper at the 9th annual International Family Enterprise Research Academy (IFERA) conference.
The paper, entitled “Championing Family Business Issues to Influence Public Policy: Evidence from Australia” proposes a strategy for the family firm sector to gain the attention of policy makers. In order to effect this strategy, the paper examines the need for the sector to achieve salience as ‘definitive stakeholders’ in the political process through possessing attributes of power, legitimacy and urgency. Australian examples are utilised to illustrate the process by which such stakeholder status may be achieved.
Through presentations and panel discussion at the conference, the paper has been widely accepted by participants from around the world, with particular interest from academics and family business groups in the European Union. The framework introduced in the paper will now be used to capture the policy and advocacy experiences of teams from Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Spain and the UK.
The best paper award is particularly significant given it is an initiative of the GEEF - European Group of Owner Managed Family Enterprises, highlighting not only the academic rigour but also the practical relevance of research undertaken by the ACFB.