Massimo Bau

Massimo Baù is a Senior Associate Professor in Family Business and Ownership at the Jönköping International Business School (JIBS) in Sweden and Director of the Centre for Family Entrepreneurship and Ownership (CeFEO).

He is the Research Director and a member of the Board of the International Family Enterprise Research Academy (IFERA), Fellow of the Family Firms Institute (FFI), member of the Academic Advisory Board of the Boards Impact Forum, and co-founder of the European Family Business Centers (EuFBC) Network.

Moreover, he is an Affiliated Faculty member of the Family Business Institute at the Grossman School of Business, University of Vermont, as well as a member of the Scientific Committee of the National Centre for Family Business at Dublin City University, and the Scientific Committee of the Family Business Lab at LIUC Cattaneo University.

Massimo Baù is also a family business advisor, working with the consulting group Generation6 to educate and guide family businesses in shaping enduring legacies across generations.

He joined JIBS and CeFEO in 2012 after receiving a PhD in Business Administration from the University of Udine (Italy) in 2011, writing a thesis entitled "Family Embeddedness and Entrepreneurial Entry" under the supervision of Cristiana Compagno (University of Udine) and Mattias Nordqvist (JIBS).

His research interests are related to the entrepreneurial process in three main research areas. First, family dynamics and the influence of family members on the actor's decision of entry and exit into the entrepreneurial process. Second, academic entrepreneurship and factors enabling new venture start-up and technology transfer. Third, firms’ growth paths through collaborative agreements and inter-firm networks. He explores these phenomena using a quantitative approach and often adopting Big Data analysis techniques with different datasets, including Statistics Sweden.

His contributions have been published in numerous leading journals, including Academy of Management Journal(2025), Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice (2023; 2020; 2019; 2017), Journal of Management Studies (2025), Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal (2025), Long Range Planning (2019), Small Business Economics (2021; 2013), Journal of Business Ethics (2020), Strategic Organization (2022), Entrepreneurship and Regional Development (2025a; 2025b; 2024; 2021), International Small Business Journal (2022), Journal of Small Business Management (2014), Business Strategy and the Environment (2024), and Journal of Family Business Strategy (2024; 2020a; 2020b). He is a member of the editorial review board of Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, and Journal of Family Business Strategy. Additionally, he serves as editor for FamilyBusiness.org.

His teaching activities focus on Family Business, Entrepreneurship, Creativity, Design Thinking, and Research Methods. He is currently the examiner of several family business courses at the Bachelor, Master, and Doctoral levels, including executive programs such as Family Business for Next Generation and Family Business Management, and doctoral courses like Theoretical Perspectives of Family Business and Family Business Research Methods.

He is the Research Director and a member of the Board of IFERA. He is also the Director of the IFERA Summer School on Family Business Research Methods, organized as a partnership between IFERA and CeFEO. He has served as Chair of the IFERA Conference (2017).

Since 2021, he has chaired the EIASM Workshop on Family Business Management in collaboration with Kajsa Haag. They organized four EIASM Workshops with several universities, such as EuFBC (online, 2021), University of Cork (Cork, 2022), University of Naples Federico II (Naples, 2023), and ESADE Business School (Barcelona, 2024). Moreover, he served as Chair of the Family Business Strategic Interest Group at the European Academy of Management (EURAM) conference (2015-2018).

He is a Fellow of the Family Firms Institute (Boston), the leading global association for family enterprise professionals. FFI Fellow is the highest level of professional designation within the organization. Moreover, he has received the Certificate in Family Business Advising (CFBA), the Certificate in Advanced Family Business Advising (ACFBA), and the Certificate in Family Wealth Advising (CFWA) from the Family Firms Institute (FFI, Boston, MA). FFI is an international professional membership organization of over 1800 individuals and organizations across 88 countries, dedicated to providing interdisciplinary education and networking opportunities for family business and family wealth advisors, consultants, educators, and researchers.

He is a member of the Academic Advisory Board of the Board Impact Forum, the Nordic chapter of the Climate Governance Initiative, which collaborates with the World Economic Forum. This initiative aims to engage Nordic and international board directors to accelerate climate actions and innovation for sustainable business and a sustainable world.

Moreover, he is a Certified Trained Facilitator of LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® methodology and a Babson Fellow in Entrepreneurship Education.