Friedrichshafen
Institute for
Family Entrepreneurship | FIF
Shaping the Future of Family Businesses and Business Families
The Friedrichshafen Institute for Family Entrepreneurship | FIF is a self-financed institute that was founded in 2009.
We focus on the long-term viability of family businesses and business families, with research and activities spanning Succession & Next Generation, Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Branding, Family Offices, Family Governance, Family Dynamics, Business History, Artificial Intelligence, Philanthropy, and Defence.
By combining theory-driven research with practice-oriented approaches and an entrepreneurial mindset, we actively contribute to shaping the future of family businesses and business families.
To achieve this, we engage with all generations of business families:
- With the next generation through research projects such as "Projekt2035" and "DNUG 2026", as well as specialized courses within the bachelor's and master's programs at Zeppelin University.
- With future family business leaders who wish to further develop their skills before or during their transition into operational leadership through the Executive Master's program eMA FESH.
- With the current generation of family business leaders through regular exchanges at events, workshops, and case studies.
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Our Team
Institute management
Professors
Research fellows
Building on Projekt2024, Germany’s largest longitudinal study of business families follows hundreds of individuals on their journey into and within the family business.
For more than a decade, the research project “Germany’s Next Generation of Entrepreneurs” has been studying the next generation of family business successors.