Expected Impact

The participating universities have rich course offer in the field of entrepreneurship and they also have Master courses on general entrepreneurial issues and also VET level courses on Family Business (FB) themes especially in the topic of generational transition. However, they don’t have inclusive Master 2nd year in the field of general sustainability of Family Businesses (FB).

The project aims at this development and after an intensive preparatory research carried out beyond the frames of the proposal the participant professorial team will experience a joint innovative curriculum development enriching largely their course creating mastery.

The compulsory introduction of blended learning elements into the courses adds also to the development of their personal competences and skills.

FAME programme will enlarge the curriculum systems of the partner institutions with a highly needed Master specialisation and will consequently strengthen the attractive profile of the institution.

Another impact (short term) on the participants of the Student Workshops and long term on the general student body in economics) will be exerted on the students’ population in entrepreneurship Master with a new specialisation for the 2nd year of this Master as an option.

The other target group to be impacted: FB owners and managers who are facing the challenges of making their company sustainable. The help offered to these FBs in form of trainings will enable them to ensure sustainability, to avoid firm dissolutions and consequently will impact on firms’ survival rates.

The planned national recognition/accreditation procedures are expected to enhance the attractive character of the training; preparatory international analysis points out the potential convincing strength of such a Master when it comes to acquire bank loans and investor supports.

A local impact will be exerted on the participating teaching staffs of the university partners. Based upon an in-depth preparatory research their joint international effort to develop Master level modules in FB sustainability issues will certainly strengthen their competences in course development.

• Students in the 2nd year of entrepreneurial Master course having selected the FB sustainability option will enable themselves to start or overtake family businesses with inclusive, time resistant business plans.
• FB owners and/or managers having registered in the courses will come out with knowledge and competences to work out sustainability strategies for their companies overarching the entire activity field.This impact can be registered on regional and national level as well since the project’s intensive dissemination activities will reach a large FB population with the information of the existing learning possibilities. This impact on existing FBs will produce important upshots on employment issues: the extreme importance of enhancing survival rates of FB’s is shown by the fact that existing companies conserve, on average, five jobs whereas start-ups generate, on average, two jobs.

As a secondary impact, after the project’s lifetime period, the graduates of the courses can operate as long term process counsellors for FBs. All these impacts will be strengthened by the national recognitions/accreditations and also by the bilateral agreements of the university partners on double degree.

The main intellectual outputs of the project are produced by collation of the results of the off-project preparatory research, by the innovative curriculum development process producing the content of the Master course training modules and the analyses of the work-based teaching solutions.
The outcomes of the preparatory reasearch will be fully and freely disseminated to all interested persons, institutions and organisations through the partners’ websites.

The teaching material will be aimed at two target groups: regular Master students and operating FB entrepreneurs.
The teaching materials will be put on the partners’ respective websites and so free and open access will be ensured for all interested public.

The blended-learning courses will be delivered by all consortium university members towards the mentioned target groups. The access procedure to the regular students’ Master training is defined in the regulations of the partner institutions.

Regular trainings for the entrepreneurs will be fee-based (beyonfd some pilot phase). The participation in these trainings cannot be assured free since it implies regular involvement of the teaching/training staff.