Date: June 22, 2025
Time: 2.30PM-4.00PM
Location: School of Economics and Management, University of Florence
Seats Available: 100 participants
Family businesses are often built on a foundation of strong values and a deep sense of purpose. In this lab, we will explore how purpose-driven leadership can shape the long-term success and sustainability of family-owned enterprises. We will examine the unique challenges family businesses face when aligning personal, family, and business values, and how these values contribute to a resilient and innovative business strategy.
Speakers:
Prof. Alfredo De Massis
Prof. Cristina Bettinelli
Dr. Attila Kiss (CEO of Gruppo Florence)
Cristina Bettinelli Ph.D, is a full professor in the Department of Management at the University of Bergamo. She is the Director of the MSc Program in International Management and Marketing (IMM)
and the Director of the Center for Young and Family Enterprise (CYFE).
Her scientific research focuses mainly on family business governance, entrepreneurial firm innovation, and internationalization. She is a member of the editorial boards of Family Business Review (FBR) and the Journal of Family Business Strategy (JFBS). Her work has appeared in international journals such as FBR, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Journal of Management Studies, Long Range Planning, and the Journal of Family Business Strategy.
She received recognition for the quality of her research on family businesses. She has been recognized with several awards, including (among others): the Best Contribution to Practice Paper (2024) for research on conflict management in family firms at the IFERA Annual Conference. The Best Unpublished Research Paper Award (2022 and 2015) from the Family Firm Institute (FFI). Multiple Best Paper Awards and Nominations at conferences like IFERA, EIASM, and ICSB. Multiple Best Reviewer Awards and Nominations at conferences like AOM, and from Journals like Family Business Review. The Journal of Small Business Management Editor’s Choice Best Paper Award at the ICSB Conference for research on succession intentions in family firms. The FBR Best Paper Award for a publication on boards of directors in family firms.
Alfredo De Massis is a Professor of Entrepreneurship & Family Business at the University of Chieti-Pescara and IMD who serves as advisor to family enterprises, family offices and policy makers. Ranked as the #1 most impactful family business professor worldwide in the researcher ranking created by Texas State University, as the leading (#1) family business academic globally in a 2024 study published in Small Business Economics, and as the most influential and productive author in the family business research field in the last decade in a recent bibliometric study, he is a Family Capital Top 100 Family Business Influencer and has been inducted by Family Business United into The Family Business Hall of Fame. Alfredo serves on the boards of public and private organizations internationally, including in Italy, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, the US, Germany, and the UK. Among various editorial roles, he is an editor of Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, associate editor of Family Business Review, and his research has been cited over 25,600 times and published in the leading academic and practitioner journals. Since 2020 he is the Co-Founder of the first Observatory on Italian Family Offices where he also serves as Chairman of the International Scientific Advisory Board.
Attila Kiss, Hungarian by birth, graduated in engineering in Milan. He began his career in strategic consulting, entered the fashion industry as CEO of the Mandarina Duck production company, and then became commercial and marketing director of the same brand. He worked as a sales manager for several fashion brands before becoming CEO of e-cube, a joint venture between the Pirelli Group and an American company. In 2015 he took on the role of COO for Balenciaga, after 4 years he became Managing Director of Ermanno Scervino. In 2020 he decides to marry the project of the launch of Gruppo Florence in the role of CEO. Under his guidance his group has become a pioneering manufacturing nexus, fostering the complete luxury industry’s supply chain. His strategy integrates companies to generate industrial and creative collaborations, offering brands bespoke, innovative solutions.