Kimberly Eddleston, professor of entrepreneurship and innovation and Daniel and Dorothy Grady Faculty Fellow at D'Amore-McKim School of Businesshas received a prestigious recognition from Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation for her contribution to the field of entrepreneurship.
The foundation named Eddleston the Schulze Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship, an award that will come with a three-year research grant of $50,000 per year to support her innovative studies of family businesses and the careers of entrepreneurs.
“I am honored and thrilled to receive this award,” said Edelston, who is a faculty member at Northeastern's Family Business Center. “Entrepreneurship, by its very nature, is a risky endeavor. But when you look at family businesses, they survive decades, centuries and generations. So we know a lot of them are doing something right, and that's the key to my research.”
Edleston is one of only four business professors nationwide to receive the professorships, which the foundation says recognize innovators and distinguished scholars at top universities and are part of its new initiative that commits $500,000 annually to advancing American entrepreneurship. Best Buy founder and chairman emeritus Dick Schulze created the foundation in 2004.
Eddleston is widely published in the field of entrepreneurship and presents at conferences worldwide. He was also ranked in the top 10 among the most prolific scholars in family business at Handbook of Family Business Research, Second Editionpublished in 2013.
Entrepreneurship, by its very nature, is a risky endeavor. But when you look at family businesses, they survive decades, centuries and generations. So we know that a lot of them are doing something right, and that's the thrust of my research.
— Kimberly Eddleston, professor of entrepreneurship and innovation
The award will support Eddleston's ongoing work on a variety of research projects, one of which is a study she is leading in collaboration with the Business Families Foundation. The study will focus on the role of women who often work behind the scenes to support and promote their family's business. The research will examine how these women provide direction while maintaining family traditions as they develop and mentor the next generation for leadership roles in their family's business.
“There's been almost no research done in this area,” he said, “and I think it's going to be a game changer in the family business arena.”
Eddleston's scholarship also focuses on emerging markets. The award, she said, will further her research presented in a book she co-authored and published this year, Businesses within families: Entrepreneurship in a varied country context. In the book, she and her colleagues studied family businesses in six countries: Switzerland, Germany, China, Brazil, India and the United States. They found that factors that predict family business success in the US do not necessarily translate to family business success in emerging markets.
In previous research, Edelston has investigated “The Fredo effect”, a term he coined referring to his famous character The Godfather movies. Her 2009 study sought to shed more light on how the “family” in family businesses serves to limit or promote the success of the firm. Based on a survey of Boston-area companies, her data showed that nearly 30 percent admitted to employing an unproductive family member.
In addition to her research, Eddleston teaches several entrepreneurship courses and has developed a small business consulting curriculum that has been presented at entrepreneurship conferences and in Inc. magazine. In one course, student teams consult with small and medium-sized businesses to develop project proposals and perform fieldwork specific to their clients' needs.
Northeastern students, he said, “come here because they have something to prove and they want to work. With the consulting projects I give them every semester, I'm always amazed by what they accomplish.”
Edelston is surrounded by a family of entrepreneurs and family businesses—including her father, who owns a law firm, and her grandfather, who owned a hotel—and seeing family businesses grow and succeed is a personal passion. “I love entrepreneurship,” he said. “It's one of those things where your background doesn't matter. It's your ingenuity, it's your passion, it's your skill.”
