Family Business Theory and Practice

Family Business Theory and Practice (BUS378) is the first of three family business classes offered within the Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Strategy and International Business (EISIB) department.

The course explores the theory and practice of operating a family business with an emphasis on social and economic justice issues faced by commercial businesses—including rising rents, sustained profitability and continuity. It’s an interactive, hybrid instructional course in which students engage in class readings, case study discussions, social equity and ethnography training, and approximately eight weeks of ethnographic field work in commercial districts of San Francisco.

The class works in partnership with the Mayor’s Office of Small Business and the County of San Francisco’s Legacy Business Office. Studies conducted by students are used to help the City of San Francisco better understand current “on-the-ground” conditions of commercial districts in targeted neighborhoods.

BUS378 is a prerequisite for the following courses: