Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise

Ensuring business success across multiple generations of a family-owned enterprise can be a daunting task. Multiple functional areas must come together to form a cohesive and resilient model for the achievement of the company—and the family’s—goals.

In Continuity Model Generation: Integrating Wealth, Strategy, Talent, and Governance Plans, distinguished researcher, practitioner, and consultant Dr. Justin Craig delivers a comprehensive and timely exploration of time-tested and proven concepts used by successful family businesses to maintain and grow their wealth.

This book is written for those who have strong strategic planning in place for their core business—but lack the same discipline in other, related activities or have been postponing hard discussions related to their estate, asset, and wealth plans. The author motivates and teaches readers how to discuss their aspirations with members of the current generation so they can help create pathways to success that enable them to contribute in a meaningful way.

Easily digestible and actionable, Continuity Model Generation is built around four key pillars: the strategic plan, the wealth, estate, and asset plan, the talent development plan, and the governance plan. Each piece of these four independent but interlocking plans contributes to the maintenance, growth, and protection of family-run enterprises.

The author focuses on ease of application and a straightforward approach in coaching the reader to focus on continuity, sustainability, and success. Perfect for business-owning families, their advisors, consultants, and other stakeholders, Continuity Model Generation also belongs in the libraries of first-generation entrepreneurs who seek to involve family members and successive generations in their enterprise.

“A seminal framework for leaders aspiring to longevity for their family enterprise. The noted business organization professor includes work of peer family business advisors in development of this guide, companion, and teaching tool for the multigenerational family business.”

—JIM ETHIER, Chairman Emeritus, Bush Brothers & Company

“To master simplicity in an era of complexity is a huge feat. This is precisely what Justin masters in Continuity Model Generation where he works his magic creating a treasure trove of theory and evidence-based independent and interdependent frameworks. His refreshing approach puts theory into action providing useful gems to meet your every need for successful continuity planning. A must-read for those seeking proactive solutions for modern day challenges in multi-generational families.”

—CAROLINE COLEMAN BAILEY, Founder & CEO of Premier Growth, author of Rooted In Family: Honoring The Past While Creating Our Future

“The world of business—especially family business—is complex, but it can be simplified, and Justin has done just that with Continuity Model Generation. In this highly insightful contribution, noted family business authority Dr. Justin Craig has comprehensively and innovatively integrated the influential frames that help all make sense of this complex world. Continuity Model Generation is destined to become the influential go-to reference for all those seeking to understand and interpret the tripartite family, business, and ownership landscape. I commend it to all audiences in the strongest possible terms.”

—KEN MOORES AM PHD DBUS, Emeritus Professor, Bond University

“Researchers in family business have many insights, but for advisors, families, and students, their work often seems to new readers like you need a roadmap or dictionary that helps you understand what they are saying. Justin has given us a guide to the core ideas, frameworks, and tools that have evolved over decades of scholars viewing family business. He has drawn on the idea of a ‘canvas,’ a short recounting of the key points of literally all the major frameworks have been developed to understand and help family enterprises grow and thrive across generations. I see this book as a reference to consult for anyone who enters this field, to orient themselves and develop a context and roadmap that enables you to become a traveller in the field of family business. This book will lie on my desktop and be used over and over again.”

—DENNIS T. JAFFE, PHD, Senior Research Fellow, BanyanGlobalBanyan Global Family Business Advisors; Professor Emeritus, Saybrook University

"Business-owning families face a multitude of potential pitfalls which can damage or even end their legacy. Participants in family businesses, regardless of their role or tenure, will greatly benefit from the comprehensive and thoughtful lens through which the author positions time-tested frameworks in the Continuity Model Generation."

—JONATHAN FLACK, Family Enterprises Leader, PwC

“Continuity across generations is the hallmark of a successful family enterprise. In Continuity Model Generation, Justin brilliantly outlines the systems, structures, and processes that are necessary to professionalize the continuity journey. The book provides valuable insights and usable frameworks for the education of family members and will be a reference manual for those who consult to family enterprises.”

—BRUCE HATCHER, Family Business Consulting, BDO

“By focusing on the four major arenas that family enterprises must navigate—strategy, talent, governance, and wealth—and by illustrating how they are interrelated, Justin Craig’s Continuity Canvas makes sense of the intricacies surrounding family business decision making. Making the complex simple is the alchemy that makes Continuity Model Generation solid gold.”

—TOM LUMPKIN, Michael F. Price Chair and Professor of Entrepreneurship, University of Oklahoma

• Professor Clay Dibrell: Professor of Management, Chair in Entrepreneurship, Executive Director of the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Ole Miss Business School, The University of Mississippi, USA.
• Professor Eli Finkel: Professor of Psychology, Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences, Professor of Management & Organizations, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Chicago
• Professor Tom Lumpkin: C. S. Trosper Chair and Professor of Entrepreneurship; Director, Tom Love Division of Entrepreneurship and Economic Development, Price College of Business, The University of Oklahoma, Texas, USA.
• Professor Jose Liberti: Joseph Jr. and Carole Levy Chair in Entrepreneurship, Clinical Professor of Finance, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USAL.
• Professor Scott Newbert: Lawrence N. Field Chair in Entrepreneurship, Professor of Management, Baruch College, City University of New York, Zicklin School of Business, New York, USA.
• Associate Professor Sophie Bacq: Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship at Indiana University Kelley School of Business, Indiana, USA.
• Associate Professor Eric Clinton: Dublin City University, Ireland.
• Dr Catherine Faherty: Dublin City University, Ireland.

• Dr Frank Barbera:
  • Financing, Firm Size and Productive Efficiency: the Effect of Family Ownership
• Dr Pradeep Dharmadasa
  • Organizational Learning, Innovation and Performance in Family-Controlled Manufacturing Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Australia
• Dr Wayne Irava:
  • Familiness Qualities, Entrepreneurial Orientation and Long-term Performance Advantage
• Dr Manuel Eberhardt:
  • The Role of Inter-personal Networks in SME Internationalisation
• Dr Mark Yupitin:
  • Agency Trade-offs in Family Firms: Theoretical Model and Implications

• FFI Best Dissertation Award: Frank Barbera
• FFI Best Dissertation Award: Wayne Irava
• Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship: Catharina C. Jecklin