Justin Craig

Clinical Professor of Family Enterprise, Co-Director of the Center for Family Enterprises at Kellogg School of Management

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  • Kellogg School of Management

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Biography

Kellogg School of Management

Dr Justin Craig is a Clinical Professor of Family Enterprise and Co-Director of the Center for Family Enterprises at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. His research focuses on the strategy, function, management, and performance of multi-generational family enterprises and those who lead and steward them. He has authored 46 peer-reviewed academic publications, numerous book chapters and teaching cases and has co-edited several books, all aimed at better understanding the challenges facing business families across the globe.

His current book Leading a Family Business: Best Practices for Long Term Stewardship (Praegar Publishing, July, 2017) is a fascinating convergence of entrepreneurship, family relations, and corporate principles. The volume, co-authored with long time mentor and collaborator Dr Ken Moores, presents two frameworks to better understand the best practices of leading a family business: a firm-level frame focused on these four critical areas of difference (architecture, governance, entrepreneurship, and stewardship) and an individual one that mirrors these in terms of the skill set and mindset successful leaders need to develop. Written as a business narrative, the book considers the differences between leadership in family enterprises and non-family enterprises; the entrepreneurial capabilities needed by executives in family-based firms; and the use of power, identification, and motivation in managing their responsibilities both at home and in the workplace. Case studies provide a real-life look at the inner workings of family operations across the globe.

 Before Kellogg, Dr Craig held faculty positions at Northeastern University in Boston, Bond University in Australia, and Oregon State University. He completed undergraduate degrees in Business and Psychology (with Honors) at Griffith University, a Master’s in Counseling and a PhD in Behavioral Science at Bond University.

 As a practitioner, he worked with and for business families for almost a decade before pursuing an academic career, and was subsequently involved with multiple entrepreneurial ventures. Today he works closely with family business leaders, their consultants, and advisors, and has trained and presented to members of family firms from most sectors and countries worldwide. He is a consultant with the Family Business Consultant Group.

 

Areas of Expertise Family Business

Education Doctor of Philosophy, 2004, Bond University, Australia

Master of Counseling, 2001, Bond University, Australia

Bachelors of Psychology (Honors), 2000, Griffith University, Australia

Bachelors of Business, 1998, Griffith University, Australia

Academic Positions Clinical Professor of Family Enterprise + Co-Director of the Center of Family Enterprises, Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management, 2015-present

Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, D'Amore-McKim School of Business, Northeastern University, Boston, 2012-2015

Adjunct Professor of Family Enterprise, Dublin City University, Ireland, 2013-present

Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship and Family Business + Co-Director of the Australian Centre for Family Business, Bond University, Australia, 2008-2012

Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship, Oregon State University, 2004-2008

Honors and Awards Long-term Orientation Research Project Grant $25K, Family Firm Institute, 2016

Excellence in Teaching Award Nominee, Northeastern University

Appointed Inaugural Ken Moores Visiting Professor of Family Enterprise, Bond University, Australia

Editorial Positions Appointed to Editorial and Review Board, Journal of Management and Governance, 2017-2017

Special Issue Co-Editor, Journal of Family Business Strategy: Family Entrepreneurship, 2017-2017

Special Issue Co-Editor, Jounal of Management and Control: Management Control in Family Firms, 2017-2017

Research Chair, Organizing Committee, Family Firm Institute Research and Education Symposium, 2015

EURAM Track Co-coordinator, Family firms and stakeholders: CSR, Branding, Image and Reputation, 2015

Best Dissertation Award Judge, Academy of Management Entrepreneurship Division, 2015

Guest Special Issue Editor: Management Control in , Journal of Management and Control, 2016

Appointed to Editorial and Review Board, Journal of Management and Governance, 2016

Editorial Board, Journal of Family Business Strategy, 2015

Associate Editor, Family Business Review, 2015

Education Academic Positions Honors and Awards Editorial Positions

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Cases

Clinton, E., C. Faherty, V. Diaz and Justin B. Craig. 2016. Big Boots to Fill: the Next Generation Continuing Differently. International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation. 17(2): 133-139.

This case history describes the challenge facing Carlos García, the third-generation successor of a Spanish family business, as he takes over the reins of Hispalis and prepares to continue the business ‘differently’. In two generations, Hispalis has morphed into a global conglomerate, with a portfolio of business ventures in multiple industries and countries. The case history facilitates discussion of business and family issues and is appropriate for beginning-level undergraduate students in the areas of entrepreneurial leadership, family business, strategic management and corporate governance.

Clinton, E., C. Faherty, V Diaz-Moriana and Justin B. Craig. 2015. Glennon Brothers: Old Dogs need to learn New Tricks. Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice.

This case study presents the story of Glennon Brothers, a third-generation family-owned sawmilling business in Ireland. As the firm evolved through the organizational life cycle and the complexity of firm operations increased, a different style of management was required to navigate the family business to the next stage. The brothers needed to move from being managers to managing managers. This case study highlights how coleaders can become comfortable with each other and unintentionally overlook the need to change their managerial priorities in line with the business's evolution.

Neubaum, D. O., C. Dibrell and Justin B. Craig. 2012. Balancing natural environment concerns of internal and external stakeholders in family and non-family businesses. Journal of Family Business Strategy. 3(1): 28-37.

While researches have long suggested that firms must be attentive to their key stakeholders, the question of how attention to different stakeholders may have different benefits for different firms has not been well addressed. This is especially true in the case of family businesses, which confront a unique set of stakeholder challenges, and socio-emotional goals not confronted by non-family firms. In this study, we investigate the effect of these competing demands across family and non-family firms. We argue that while being attentive to both internal and external stakeholders is important to firm performance in family and non-family firms, family firms can benefit more when they match their concern for natural environmental stakeholders with a demonstration of concern for their employees. By effectively leveraging the power of these critical internal stakeholders, family firms can gain competitive advantages over non-family firms as it is through these internal stakeholders which the demands of external stakeholder are often met.

Morris, M. and Justin B. Craig. 2010. Towards a better understanding of family enterprising. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing. 2(3/4): 308-319.

By integrating stewardship theory and entrepreneurial orientation perspectives we contribute to the understanding of the concept of family enterprising. Using excerpts from a single case study we provide insight into how a third generation Australian family has evolved and transformed by embracing the notion of family enterprising, which, we suggest, places them in a strong position for sustainability across generations.

Craig, Justin B. and N. J. Lindsay. 2002. Incorporating the family dynamic into the entrepreneurship process. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development. 9(4): 416-430.

This research furthers our understanding of the interaction between the fields of entrepreneurship and family business. It presents a framework that introduces the family dynamic to Timmons’ driving forces model of entrepreneurship. The framework highlights the influence of the family in the entrepreneurship process and the importance of the fit among the three driving forces and the family. It highlights the importance of, and the pivotal roles played by, outside boards of directors when entrepreneurial activities are undertaken by family businesses. Using extracts from interviews with family and non-family executives and board members, the research employs a single case study that describes an actual series of events to provide a practical application of the theory.

Ramachadran, Kavil and Justin B. Craig. 2011. Family Enterprise in the Asian Pacific: Exploring Transgenerational Entrepreneurship in Family Firms (Editor). London: Elger Publishing, ISBN: 9781848447929.

This Book is a compilation of chapters authored by STEP Asia-Pacific partners. These partner-institutions scholars and the families with whom they have worked have interpreted observations around a particular dimension, or in some cases multiple dimensions, of the overall research framework that is common to all in the global STEP project. The chapters, therefore, can be useful in a variety of contexts. Consistent with the STEP philosophy of upholding the highest scholastic integrity, each case is action research based rather than being positioned as what typically be referred to as a teaching case. However, having introduced this caveat, there is ample opportunity and sufficient scope, as will become evident, to use each case to facilitate classroom discussion at undergraduate, graduate, and executive education levels. The purpose pf each of the chapters, therefore, is to broadly interpret a common research question in order to introduce key findings to extend or challenge existing theoretical frames and further the understanding of the uniqueness of the family business context.

Moores, K. and Justin B. Craig. 2004. CASE | The Professionalization Process: The Dennis Family Corporation case..

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