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Socio-Emotional Wealth in family firms and its influence on green product innovations is an important theme in general management research. The purpose of the study was to understand the link between the socio-emotional wealth of family firms and green innovation to understand how family firms in their quest to preserve their socio-emotional wealth will influence green innovation motives. The study was based on a single case study, a packaging company chosen with an innovation center for green solutions. A total of 11 interviews were conducted. The study is based on constructionism and relativism research philosophy. The findings show that there is an influence of the dimensions of the FIBER model of socio-emotional wealth on green innovation while preserving their socio-emotional wealth. Organizations can use these findings to get an understanding of green innovation, as well as that family firms, need to embrace more their uniqueness as it’s the result of their reliance on socio-emotional wealth.

A large number of firms around the world are family firms. Many of these family firms are involved in internationalization strategies. Despite the breadth of knowledge on the internationalization of large family firms, not enough attention has been paid to some of the aspects of internationalization. Specifically, the literature is scarce with respect to understanding the mechanisms that may help or harm family firms in their internationalization strategies and the impact of these strategies on firm performance. In my dissertation, I use property rights theory to argue that family firms are able to minimize their negotiating and policing costs, allowing them to benefit from internationalization, but not in all environments. I add to the literature by further finding that family firms internationalize more in environments that have lower levels of legal and political, physical, and intellectual property rights. Also, I find that family firms experience higher performance in environments that have lower levels of property rights protection. Therefore, this dissertation creates various avenues for future research, and provides more evidence toward the superiority of family firms in some, but not all environments.

There are a broad range of businesses available in the modern economy we live in. Family businesses can simply be explained as a business firm or company in which most of the employees that are present are family members. With the help of family businesses present in the global economy, many new startups are recognized and boosted with the help of family firms. Family businesses play a major role in the European economy where statistics show that nearly 55% of the total company’s present are family businesses. Hence the problem arises from the introduction of nonfamily members in the family business. Due to various reasons, many family firms are not able to keep their staff strictly consisting of family members. Then comes the question of hiring nonfamily members into a family business. Hence this research will help firstly with the overall understanding of family firms and secondly how these firms approach the recruiting process for nonfamily members for them to be a long-lasting team player. The sample chosen in this research belongs to Romania. I chose the country of Romania because of my own nationality and because of my desire to understand the Romanian economy better. Eight interviews were carried out with personnel from 3 different firms, 3 founders and 5 nonfamily members. For this research, data was collected through the case study method, a qualitative methodology. At the last part of the study, the findings are explained in such a way which give a complete idea about what strategies do family-workers implement to hire and retain nonfamily workers and the opinion of these regarding the subject as a part of their team.

The thesis investigates if investors on the Swedish Stock Exchange, Nasdaq Stockholm, are compensated with a premium for holding shares in family firms due to family-specific agency costs between 2015 to 2019. The thesis uses a portfolio-based approach where the risk-adjusted returns are calculated with the Fama-French three-factor model and the Carhart’s four-factor model. A portfolio consisting of family firms displays a positive weekly alpha between 0,14 to 0,21 percent, 7,28 to 10,92 percent on a yearly basis, indicating a premium for holding shares in family firms. Additionally, the results show that firms where families control a majority of the votes lead to higher abnormal returns. A portfolio consisting of family firms with over 50 percent voting rights generate abnormal returns of 0,16 to 0,26 percent weekly, and 10,92 to 13,52 percent yearly. Higher abnormal returns when the control is higher further implies that investors are compensated with a premium for family-specific agency costs when buying shares in family-controlled firms.

Familjeföretag utgör 65-80 procent av alla världens företag och har spelat en nyckelroll i moderniseringen av ekonomin i världens länder. Kapitalstruktur är ett väl utforskat område, men trots detta är det svårt att exakt avgöra vad som driver företag i sina beslut gällande kapitalstruktur. Få studier har genomförts som specifikt fokuserar på kapitalstrukturen i familjeföretag, vilket ligger till grund för den här studien. Denna studie undersöker huruvida det finns några skillnader avseende kapitalstruktur mellan familjeföretag och icke-familjeföretag på den svenska börsen. Även huruvida skuldsättningsgraden påverkas av andra faktorer undersöks. Genom att använda en handplockad datamängd bestående av 205 noterade svenska företag under år 2012 har vi kommit fram till följande resultat: Svenska noterade familjeföretag skuldsätter sig mindre än svenska icke-familjeföretag. Angående huruvida det finns faktorer som påverkar skuldsättningsgraden kan vi visa att det finns ett positivt beroende mellan skuldsättningsgrad och följande två variabler: lönsamhet och andel materiella anläggningstillgångar. Att ett positivt beroende råder mellan skuldsättningsgrad och dessa två variabler visar att ju lönsammare eller ju mer materiella anläggningstillgångar ett företag har, desto högre tenderar skuldsättningsgraden att vara. Dock hittades inget beroende mellan skuldsättningsgrad och företagets storlek. Utifrån den teoretiska referensramen ges möjliga förklaringar till det erhållna resultatet och i vissa fall agerar inte alltid företagen i likhet med vad kapitalstruktursteorierna förespråkar. Sammantaget visar vår studie att det finns en signifikant skillnad mellan svenska börsnoterade familjeföretag och icke-familjeföretag avseende deras val av kapitalstruktur samt att det finns faktorer som påverkar skuldsättningsgraden. / Family firms represent 65-80 percent of the entire world’s business and they have played a key role in modernizing the economy of the world’s countries. Capital structure is a well-explored area, but despite this, it ́s difficult to determine exactly what drives companies in their decisions regarding capital structure. Few studies have been conducted that specifically focuses on the capital structure in family firms, which is the basis of this study. This study examines whether there are any differences regarding capital structure between family firms and non- family firms on the Swedish stock exchange. Even whether the leverage ratio is influenced by other factors examined. Using a hand-collected dataset of 205 listed Swedish companies in 2012, we come up with the following results: Swedish listed family firms have lower leverage ratios than non-family firms. Regarding whether there are factors that affect the leverage ratio, we can show that there is a positive relationship between leverage and the following two variables: profitability and tangible assets. That a positive relationship exists between leverage and these two variables shows that the more profitable or the more tangible assets a company has, the higher the leverage ratio tends to be. However, no relationship between leverage and firm size where found. Based on the theoretical framework possible explanations for the obtained result is provided, and in some cases the companies does not always act similar to what the capital structure theories advocates. Overall, our study shows that there is a significant difference between the Swedish listed family firms and non-family firms regarding their choice of capital structure and that there are factors that affect the level of leverage.

The paper analyses the relationship between succession and firm performance. Using a unique panel data set on a sample of roughly 4,000 Austrian family firms we examine empirically the impact of past succession as well as future succession plans on employment growth and investment behaviour. Analysing succession plans, we do not find a 'shadow of succession' effect. No significant difference in employment growth and investment behaviour is found between firms that plan to transfer the firm in the next ten years and those who do not. In contrast, past succession exerts a significant and positive employment growth effect which becomes stronger over time. The impact of past succession on investments is also positive but not significantly different from zero. Thus, our findings provide support for the existence of a positive employment shadow after a transfer, whereas the shadow of succession hypothesis has to be rejected prior to transition. (author's abstract) / Series: Discussion Papers SFB International Tax Coordination

The purpose of this study explains the relationship between corporate governance and the auditor's role in Swedish family firms with the definitions micro, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and how this relationship is affected by the firms strategy. The study is based on a survey sent out to 3000 Swedish SMEs, of which 280 responses from family firms could be used. Our findings showed that the auditor in the family firms didn’t have a specific role or contributed added value to the firm, and that the strategy didn’t affect the outcome. Furthermore, we found correlation between the perceptions of the auditor's role and added value depending on the family firms type of corporate governance. The correlations in our findings support the agency theory, thus its agency problems and information asymmetry between shareholders and the board of directors. / Syftet med denna studie förklarar sambandet mellan bolagsstyrning och revisorns mervärdesroll i svenska familjeföretag med storleksdefinitionerna mikro, små och medelstora företag (SMF) och hur företagens strategi påverkar detta samband. Studien baseras på en enkätundersökning som skickades ut till 3000 svenska SMF, varav 280 familjeföretags fullständiga svar kunde användas. Resultatet visade att revisorn i familjeföretaget inte hade en särskild roll eller gav ett mervärde och att strategin inte påverkade resultatet. Däremot fanns det samband mellan uppfattningar om revisorns roll samt mervärde beroende på vilken typ av bolagsuppsättning som familjeföretaget hade. Sambanden vi fann styrker agentteorin och dess agentproblematik samt informationsasymmetrin mellan aktieägare och styrelse.

Background: Sweden is known for encouraging entrepreneurship where 99.9% of the business organizations are SMEs. Including Sweden, several other countries in the world provide significant importance to family firms, as their contribution is noteworthy to the global economy. Due to numerous reasons such as globalization and growth aspects, FSMEs are forced to gain competitive advantage through international diversification. Internationalization of FSMEs can be influenced by unique characteristics of family firms.Purpose: Internationalization is a process where the decision of internationalization can be affected by several factors including resources. Among unique characteristics of family firms, FSMEs also possess family-specific resources that may influence these decisions. Hence the purpose of this study is to gain an in-depth understanding on which and how family-specific resources influence internationalization decisions.Method: With the use of a single case study method, we gained valuable insight of a Swedish candy manufacturing family firm which engaged in internationalization successfully. The data was collected through in-depth interviews, observations, company website, published press interviews, press articles and other databases.Conclusion: Internationalization can be a daunting decision for family firms where availability of resources play a major role. The key family-specific resources that influenced the decision of internationalization of the family firm studied in this thesis were bridging social capital, human capital and governance capital. The remaining capitals may have contributed to the internationalization process. Other than the family-specific resources, factors such as generational change and ability to gain substantial financial support in further influenced their internationalization decisions. These findings likewise confirm the existence of heterogeneity of family firms which makes them unique.

Empresas familiares são o principal tipo de empresa ao redor do mundo. No Brasil são responsáveis por 50% do PIB e geram 85% dos empregos formais. Por possuírem a influência da família no negócio, os mecanismos de controle gerencial adotados por essas empresas tendem a ser informais e baseados em confiança. Estudos na área de contabilidade gerencial em empresas familiares demonstram que a adoção de sistemas de controle gerencial trazem benefícios econômicos e podem auxiliar na implementação de estratégias e facilitar processos de sucessão. No entanto, falta compreensão na academia sobre como ocorre o processo de adoção de sistemas de controle gerencial em empresas familiares e qual a influência da família e dos valores familiares neste processo. Este estudo buscou entender como os valores familiares, a presença da família na gestão e a interação entre os atores organizacionais influenciam o processo de adoção de SCG em empresas familiares. Para atingir este objetivo, foi conduzido um estudo de caso em uma empresa familiar que possui membros da família na gestão e passou por um processo de adoção de sistemas de controle gerencial. Foram realizadas entrevistas com gestores familiares e não familiares e coletados documentos considerados relevantes para o entendimento do fenômeno estudado. A análise foi feita utilizando-se a técnica de análise de conteúdo temática à luz do quadro teórico proposto por ter Bogt e Scapens (2014), baseado na Velha Economia Institucional (Old Institutional Economics). Os resultados evidenciados neste estudo demonstram como o contexto organizacional, os valores familiares no negócio e a racionalidade dos atores organizacionais direcionaram a escolha, o processo de adoção e a institucionalização do sistema de controle gerencial no caso estudado. Este estudo contribui para a literatura demonstrando que o uso do quadro teórico proposto por ter Bogt e Scapens (2014) é apropriado para entender como ocorre o processo de adoção de SCG por empresas familiares e fornecendo explicações para resultados conflitantes (Songini & Gnan, 2015; Speckbacher &Wentges, 2012), sugerindo que além da presença de membros da família na gestão, as instituições internas (como os valores familiares) e externas precisam ser considerados quando se busca entender a adoção de SCG em empresas familiares. / Family firms are the most prevalent type of companies in Brazil and throughout the world, contributing to 50% of the brazilian GDP and 85% of the employment rate. Given that the family is involved in the business, control mechanisms in these firms are more likely to be informal and trust-based. Academic research shows that the use of management control systems can result in better economic performance, promote strategy implementation and support succession processes. Nevertheless, there is a gap on the understanding of how management control systems adoption process happen and what is the influence of the family values on this process. Drawing on a case study carried out on a family firm managed by family members that recently adopted a management control systems this studies aims to shed light on how family values, the presence of family managers and the interaction between organizational actors influences management control systems adoption. Interviews were conducted with family and non-family managers and relevant documents were collected. The collected data was analyzed guided by ter Bogt e Scapens (2014) framework, based on Old Institutional Economics. The results shows how the presence of a family manager e the family values can influence adoption process and the institutionalization of management control systems in family firms. The organizational context, family values and the agency of organizational actors directed management control systems choice and the adoption process on the family firm studied. This study contributions to the academic literature are twofold: Firstly, the use of ter Bogt e Scapens (2014) framework is suitable to understand how MCS adoption processes occurs on family firms. Secondly, providing explanations for conflicting results (Songini & Gnan, 2015; Speckbacher & Wentges, 2012), suggesting that in addition to family managers presence both internal (family values) and external institutions must be accounted for when seeking to understand the adoption of MCS in family firms.