Global warming imposes significant physical, regulatory and reputational risks to listed corporations. Consequently, climate-related issues have recently received increased attention from investors, creditors and stock market regulators. In February 2010, The United States (US) Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued an interpretative guidance requiring publicly listed firms to disclose material climate change risks (CCR) in their annual securities filings (10Ks). However, considering the level of enforcement and managerial discretion in the definition of materiality, market participants raised concerns about the lack and quality of CCR disclosure. This research explores the effects of family control as an important determinant of CCR disclosure strategies. Family firms are the world’s most common form of economic organizations, dominating the global economy. The socioemotional wealth (SEW) theoretical perspective argues that family firms behave differently from their nonfamily counterparts and exhibit significant heterogeneity depending on the level of family control and involvement. Using a sample of S&P 500 companies, I examine whether family firms differ from their non-family peers in their climate change disclosure strategies. Additionally, I further explore the effects of two dimensions (i.e. family control and influence, family identity) of socioemotional wealth on CCR disclosures. Overall, I find that family ownership has no impact on CCR disclosure decisions, but is negatively related to CCR disclosure quality. Moreover, I find a positive relationship between family firms prioritizing family identity and CCR disclosure quality. The findings of this research have implications for regulators, investors, and academic researchers.

Family businesses, in the process of internationalization, beyond the consideration of the economic aspects of international expansion, may take into account non-economic factors and goals aimed at benefiting the family. These non-economic aspects are referred to as socioemotional wealth (SEW). The main question raised in this dissertation is: how does SEW impact the internationalization in family firms? The SEW construct has been considered in previous theoretical and empirical research but, to date, an instrument allowing direct measurement of this phenomenon has not be developed. Therefore, part of this dissertation is dedicated to the development of a measurement instrument allowing for the direct assessment of SEW in terms of its importance to the family firm decision-maker. The scale development procedure is described and the final version of the developed three-dimensional SEW Importance scale is presented. Further, this dissertation includes the development and statistical testing of the model of the impact of SEW on the extent of family firm internationalization, as well as the moderating effect of environmental munificence on the above relationship. This is followed by the discussion of the results, limitations of the study, its contributions and the implications for future research and family firm practice. The aim of this dissertation is to develop a valid and reliable instrument for measuring the importance of SEW in family firms, as well as to further the understanding of the impact that SEW may have on internationalization decisions in family enterprises.

No / The differences between family firms and nonfamily firms have gained increasing scholarly attention in the field of management, and socioemotional wealth has been argued as the main source of family firm distinctiveness. However, previous researchers have paid little attention to the heterogeneity in socioemotional wealth across family firms. Moreover, little is studied about the generational differences between founder-led family firms and descendant-led family firms. In this study, we address this gap by focusing on how these differences in family leadership are reflected in the gap between firms’ rhetorical CSR policies (CSR talk) and their substantive CSR implementation (CSR walk), which we refer to as CSR decoupling. We argue that the founders of family firms are distinct from descendants regarding three aspects: affective attachment, cognitive identification, and social concern. Our findings reveal that the relationship between socioemotional wealth and CSR decoupling is contingent on family generations. Family ownership decreases CSR decoupling only in founder-led family firms, while it increases CSR decoupling in descendant-led family firms. We discuss our contributions to research at the interaction of family business and CSR.

The concept of socioemotional wealth (SEW) seeks to present an independent paradigmatic basis for family-firm research, and in doing so aims to establish a sound basis for the scientific legitimacy of family-firm research. Establishing that legitimacy requires scholars to demonstrate that SEW is based on coherent assumptions on several theoretical levels. This paper uses the problematization methodology to challenge the coherence of the theoretical assumptions underpinning SEW and to advance theory development. The results of this problematization show that SEW is built on a theoretical level close to the object of research (in-house assumptions), but that more deeply-rooted theoretical levels (e.g. paradigmatic assumptions) are not sufficiently elaborated. Moreover, the original conceptualization is based on a positivist-mechanistic view, which hinders SEW reflecting the complex reality of family firms. Based on the results of this problematization, new systems theory is applied to reframe SEW's theoretical grounding. Thereby the main contribution of the paper is a critical reflection on the theoretical underpinnings of SEW (in particular root-metaphor and paradigmatic assumptions), serving as the basis for advancing a coherent theoretical understanding of this important concept in family business research.

Current research in corporate governance focuses primarily upon minimization of agency costs in the shareholder-management relationship. In this dissertation, I examine a complimentary perspective based upon stewardship theory. The model developed herein leverages past research on socioemotional wealth to identify CEO attributes associated with stewardship behavior. I examine whether these attributes lead to positive firm performance. Moreover, I examine how family ownership and board of director characteristics influences the CEO stewardship – firm performance relationship. A 3-year unbalanced panel dataset using 268 S&P 1500 firms is analyzed using generalized least squares regression. All covariates lag the dependent variable by 1-year; constructs are included to control for popular agency prescriptions used to monitor, control, and incentivize executives. I find no relationship between the hypothesized constructs related to CEO stewardship (board memberships, organizational identity, and board tenure) and firm performance (Tobin’s Q). However, results reveal family ownership positively moderates the relationship between the quantity of CEO board memberships and firm performance. Additionally, the presence of affiliated directors and community influential directors positively moderates the CEO board memberships-firm performance relationship. The presence of community influential directors also positively moderates the relationship between CEO organizational identity and firm performance. Results from this dissertation provide moderate support for stewardship theory as a compliment to agency theory in corporate governance literature. There is evidence that family ownership and board of director attributes strengthen the relationship between those CEO stewardship constructs and firm performance. However, lack of a direct relationship between the CEO stewardship constructs and firm performance suggest a need more fine-grained constructs that measure stewardship. A substantial amount of research exists in corporate governance using the principal-agent model. The research herein extends this research by using stewardship theory to compliment the dominant agency model. I hope this research encourages scholars to take an integrative approach by (1) taking a renewed look at alternate theories of corporate governance such as stewardship theory, and (2) continue work that focuses upon firm performance maximization through CEO stewardship as well as agency loss mitigation through monitoring and control of the CEO.

SEW refers to the stock of affect-related values that an owning family derives from its family business. As a promising theoretical concept, the SEW has been used widely to explain the diverse strategic choices of family firms compared to non-family firms. However, little study has been done to measure SEW directly and to measure the effect of SEW on family firms’ strategic choices.     Within the context of family-owned Hidden Champions, this thesis study replicates the five-dimension model proposed by Berrone et al. in an empirical study to verify the psychometric measurement on the degree of SEW. Furthermore, internationalization has been chosen as an example to demonstrate the effects of SEW on family firms’ strategic choices and outcomes.   This study has verified the reliability and validity of the SEW scale and SEW’s five subscales constructed. Furthermore, the measurement on SEW and its five dimensions has been applied to examine the effects of SEW and its five dimensions on the internationalization of family firms. The findings reveal that SEW has a negative effect on the internationalization of family firms, which is mainly due to the negative effect of Family Control and Influence.

This study is the first to measure the interaction of socioemotional wealth (SEW) and social capital, consisting of community and institution, and their impact in post-disaster recovery of small family businesses. Hierarchical multiple regression is used based on a sample of 79 small family businesses in Indonesia. Our findings suggest that family firms in post-disaster situation are able to pursue both SEW goals and economic gains, thus breaking the trade-off between SEW vs. economic benefits. More specifically, we found that SEW—as a strategic decision making tool—shows its prominence on the interaction between SEW-community and SEW-institution. This implies that small family businesses need to find synergy between socioemotional endowments and social capital to help them to bounce back and recover after a disaster.

Background: The relationship between family firms and auditors is not a topic that is very well examined. This is also a relationship that is extraordinary because they have different aims with the relationship. Since the family firms seek for long and close relationships while the auditor needs to maintain their independence. There have also been several scandals in the past between family firms and their auditor where the relationship has become to close. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the auditor’s role in family firms, how value is co-created and what value that is co-created when they interact with each other. Method: To answer the research question the data in this study is collected through semi- structured interviews. The interviews were performed and inspired by previous studies which we developed a framework on to have as a guideline during the interviews. The participants in the study were three family firms and their respective auditor and the participants were located in the same geographical area. Findings: In this study, we have focused on how and what value family firms and auditors co- create when they interact with each other. The study suggests important aspects of the family firm and auditor relation to facilitating the value co-creation process. The aspects that were revealed as important were the relationship, communication, collaborative, trust, and experience from the auditor. The study also investigated which values family firms and auditors co-create, these were smarter planning, increase of effectiveness, exchange of knowledge, expanded networks, and value for society.

The objective of financial reporting has mainly been discussed in the accounting literature with reference to the stewardship/accountability and decision-usefulness perspective. The latter objective is emphasised by standard setters, but the accounting literature argues for a stronger emphasis on the stewardship/accountability perspective. The discussion surrounding the objective is largely conducted with large public companies as a foundation. Thus, the thesis aims to explore the function of financial reporting in small private family businesses as they account for a large amount of the existing corporations. The study relies on a qualitative method with semi-structured interviews and a document study on the financial reports to fulfil the purpose of the study. The study shows that the function of financial reporting is revolved around evaluating firm performance and using the financial report as a communication tool to external users. The findings indicate tendencies of the decision-usefulness, but the stewardship/accountability objective is more apparent. Also, the concept of socioemotional wealth appears to be related to the stewardship/accountability objective and the function of financial reporting.

Background: The advancement and spread of digitalization is reshaping the commercial landscape for firms, executing proper and adequate digital transformations have therefore become a necessity in order to thrive in the digital era. Existing literature has indicated that the unique and distinctive characteristics that family businesses possess may shape the way such firms handle various change efforts. However, research of how family firms handle digital transformations is heavily undeveloped, where the non-financial aspects’ influence on such transformations has yet to be assessed. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how non-financial aspects could influence a digital transformation process in family businesses. By fulfilling this purpose, additional insights can be contributed and enable a more thorough understanding of how non-financial aspects influence digital transformations in a family business. Method: This qualitative and exploratory thesis, guided by an inductive approach, has utilized a multiple case study containing four different cases in order to generate more insights and create a better understanding regarding the topic at hand. Eleven semi-structured interviews have been conducted and a thematic analysis has served as guidance when interpreting and analyzing the data. Conclusion: The results of the research reveal that four non-financial aspects were identified through the multiple case study. However, merely three of the four non-financial aspects identified were found to influence digital transformations in family businesses, encompassing both advantages and challenges which consequently affect a digital transformation. Additionally, the results show that one of the non-financial aspects solely had a positive influence on digital transformations, while the other two had both a positive and negative influence.