Student Experience
Students praise the family business courses as the most valuable of their academic careers. Coursework synthesizes learning from core subjects with practices that are common to successful family businesses.
MBA students can pursue an MBA Family Enterprise Focus.
UBP students can select Family Business as an Area of Interest.
Each spring, we offer two foundational Family Business courses to UBP, MAC and MBA students, as well as UNC undergraduate and graduate students with family business interests. The introduction to the Family Business course is built upon Steve Miller’s research “Developing Next Generation Talent in Family Businesses,” which focused on factors that influence next-generation leader development. It is incorporated into class discussions and assignments, so students learn practical applications that support successful transition from one generation to the next.
Family Business I: Introduction to Family Business (BUSI 503/ MBA 843A)
Family businesses are the most common and influential form of enterprise in the world—spanning small local firms to global corporations. Yet, they operate under dynamics unlike any other type of business. Family Business I introduces students to the unique characteristics, opportunities, and challenges that emerge when family, ownership, and business systems overlap. Using real-world examples, guest speakers, cases, and reflection, this course explores what makes family enterprises distinct — and why understanding those differences matters for anyone who hopes to lead, advise, or work within them.
Family Business II: Ownership and Governance (BUSI 512/ MBA 843B)
This course will help you learn to analyze family business ownership and governance in action. We will investigate family and ownership governance in addition to business governance, and how the roles and responsibilities of managers, owners, directors, and family interact. After taking this course, you will be better equipped to understand and participate in family enterprise systems—whether as an owner, manager, or director of your own family business, as a board member of another family’s enterprise, as an advisor to other families’ enterprises, or as a founder of your own family enterprise.
Please reach out to Gwen Cummings, Student Engagement Coordinator, for additional questions about the courses.
Family Business Club
The Family Business Club is open to all students with an interest in family business. Students whose families own a family enterprise, who plan to work as a non-family executive within a family business or plan to advise family-run companies benefit from evening speaker events, career treks and boot camps offered through the club.
For more information, contact Gwen Cummings, Student Engagement Coordinator.