By Susan Lang
Family businesses make critical contributions to the national economy and to family well-being. To determine what directions research on entrepreneurs, families in business and family businesses should take and to help enhance the viability of family businesses, the newly established Cornell University Family Business Re search Institute is hosting a conference March 17 to 19 in New York City.
The Cornell Conference on the Entrepreneurial Family: Building Bridges, sponsored by the Executive Compensation Group Inc., Jefferies & Co. Inc., Coopers and Lybrand, L.L.P., and Genus Resources Inc., is intended for academics in the areas of family studies, business management, family economics/management and com munity/rural development; cooperative extension educators; family-related profes sional practitioners, family business service providers; and family business owners and managers.
"The goal of our multidisciplinary perspective on family businesses is not only to determine how academic institutions can develop statistically viable research on families in business but also to explore new models for teaching and outreach with an emphasis on high-technology communications," said Ramona K.Z. Heck, the conference co-chair and the J. Thomas Clark Professor of Entrepreneurship and Personal Enterprise in the College of Human Ecology, as well as director of the Cornell Family Business Research Institute, a major institute of the Bronfenbrenner Life Course Center.
The conference has 30 researchers and professionals scheduled to make presenta tions on a wide range of topics.
The keynote presentation, "University Outreach in the 21st Century: Cutting-Edge Delivery Systems," will be co-presented by James Votruba, vice provost for university outreach, and Gail Imig, director of extension and associate vice provost, both at Michigan State University.
Other speakers include executives from NetMarquee Online Services, California Fam ily Studies Center, Nichols and Associates, and numerous faculty from colleges related to human ecology and agricultural sciences.
The Cornell University Family Business Research Institute is the first family busi ness program to focus on the family side of the issues in the field and to take a leadership role for family business research. Its mission is to strengthen families and their busi nesses given their respective vital societal and economic roles.