CeFEO — Centre for Family Entrepreneurship and Ownership — is a research Centre at Jönköping International Business School in Sweden. It is the first Centre in the Nordics and a reference point in Europe for family business and ownership research, education, and outreach.

Welcome to CeFEO

Since 2005, CeFEO has been consistenly ranked as one of the 3 best research centers in the world in the field of family business studies (Siaba & Rivera, 2024; Rovelli et al., 2021; Xu et al., 2018; Matherne et al., 2013; Debicki et al., 2009), producing academic research, commissioned research, practitioner-oriented books, as well as seminars and training courses for practitioners across Sweden.

Our mission is to conduct high-quality research and disseminate knowledge on different family businesses and ownership topics. Our Centre is genuinely interdisciplinary and international.

CeFEO is based on the idea to combine Academic excellence and Practical relevance, in three core dimensions: Research, Education and Outreach.

CeFEO Research is devoted to research activities about family entrepreneurship and ownership. The Centre's researchers are nationally and internationally recognized through publications, award-winning dissertations, papers and regular attendance at conferences around the world. We are involved in both basic and applied research. We host visiting researchers, we organize national and international research workshops, and we participate to the most important family business research networks.

CeFEO Education is articulated in Bachelor, Master, Executive, and Doctoral courses. We offer internship programs to JIBS students and we yearly organize a thesis award on the topics of family business and ownership. The quality of our education activities at JIBS are certified by AACSB and EQUIS. 

CeFEO Outreach focuses on the dissemination of knowledge about family entrepreneurship and ownership to a broad group of stakeholders, such as academic researchers and educators, as well as family business owners, managers, advisors and policy makers interested in the areas. We offer executive education programs, seminars and other learning activities. CeFEO also has a partnership program for institutions, organizations, and family firms.

CeFEO builds upon more than 25 years of research on family dynamics and thanks to generous donations from the Hamrin Foundation we became the largest research center on family business in Europe.

Today CeFEO has more than 90 researchers from several disciplines, such as Business Administration, Economics, and Business Law, including over 30 affiliated members. The continued operations and future growth of CeFEO is supported by a strategic investment from Jönköping International Business School and Jönköping University, as well as our sponsors.