What Research Misses About Women in Family Firms
Featuring Sougata Ray
A study by Thomas Schmidheiny Centre for Family Enterprise has found that while research on women in family businesses has grown, critical gaps remain.
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Sougata Ray
Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship (Practice). He also serves as the Executive Director of the Thomas Schmidheiny Centre for Family Enterprise (ThS_CFE). His research explores strategy, innovation, entrepreneurship, and governance in high-growth economies.
Family businesses have historically favoured male heirs and primogeniture, a system of inheritance where the firstborn child inherits the parents’ wealth. However, in the past few years, the recognition of women in family businesses has gradually become more “central, substantive, and important.”
The study by Professor Sougata Ray, along with co-authors Nupur Pavan Bang and Satish Kumar, argues that because family businesses operate as social units, they often reflect societal gender biases. As a result, family firms are particularly susceptible to gender-related challenges.