Successful Transgenerational Entrepreneurship Practices (STEP)

Founded in 2005 by Babson College in collaboration with six academic affiliates in Europe, the STEP Project is a global applied research initiative that explores the entrepreneurial process within business families and generates solutions that have immediate application for family leaders. The visionary institutions that founded the project include ESADE (Spain), HEC (France), Jönköping International Business School (Sweden), Universita Bocconi (Italy), Universitat St. Gallen (Switzerland), Universitat Witten/Herdecke (Germany), and ​Babson College (USA).

Families are the dominant form of business organization worldwide—they play a leading role in the social and economic wealth creation of communities and countries. To achieve continued growth and continuity, they must pass on the entrepreneurial mindsets and capabilities that enable them to create new streams of wealth across many generations—not just pass a business from one generation to the next. We refer to this practice as transgenerational entrepreneurship.

Leading academics and business families from around the world have joined as partners of the STEP Project to explore Successful Transgenerational Entrepreneurship Practices and create a stream of powerful practices and cases that empower families to build their entrepreneurial legacies.

For more information on STEP publications, research reports, newsletters or academic information packet visit our digital knowledge repository.