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.

Family businesses are generally considered to be the most prevalent form of business around the world. They have also been shown to differ from their non-family counterparts due the non-economic factors that influence their decision-making. One of the most widely used conceptualization of these factors concerns the controlling family’s socioemotional endowment or in other words, the family’s socioemotional wealth. Newer approaches have proposed that socioemotional wealth can not only be broken down into several component dimensions, but that these dimensions may shift in prioritization in response to different contingencies. The sudden spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and the global crisis that has followed in its wake is one such contingency, impacting economies and family firms virtually everywhere in the world. Studying the crisis’ effects on family firms has thus already been outlined as a major focus of research going forward. This paper aims to develop the concept of socioemotional wealth as a dynamic construct and study the crisis’ effects on family firms. We conduct a content analysis of 20 Swedish and 20 German publicly listed family firms’ statements to shareholders published over a three-year period coinciding with the emergence of the crisis. Thus, this research presents an empirical look at how family firms in the contexts of two differing governmental responses to the crisis prioritized the different dimensions of their socioemotional wealth. The results show the families’ emotional attachment coming to the forefront in both cases, with no significant difference between the two countries’ family firms. Furthermore, we observe the families’ socioemotional ties to their employees retain their pre-crisis prevalence as the most prioritized dimension. This is accompanied by a deepening of the quality of the communication tied to this dimension of socioemotional wealth with it coming to reflect the emerging solidarity and cultural changes resulting from the crisis. The results suggest that family firms may respond to a crisis on the scale of the COVID-19 pandemic through their decision-making being increasingly influenced by their emotional attachment to the firm, while also retaining a focus on preserving strong social ties to their employees to persevere through the difficult period.

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Background: Family businesses contribute significantly to global economies but face unique challenges, notably in succession planning and generational transitions. These challenges are amplified due to the interplay of personal relationships, emotions, and family dynamics. Existing research offers quantitative insights into this field; however, the nuances of human experiences and perceptions in different cultural contexts remain underexplored. This study seeks to bridge this gap through qualitative exploration of family businesses' experiences and perceptions in Sweden and Canada, focusing on succession planning and generational transitions. The research aims to provide a more nuanced understanding, thus contributing to more effective, culturally sensitive, and practitioner-oriented strategies for managing intergenerational transfers. Purpose: This study delves into the complex process of succession in family businesses in Sweden and Canada. By emphasizing practitioners' lived experiences, it aims to identify prevalent patterns, contribute to the current literature, and potentially inform enhanced succession practices. Method: Applying an abductive research approach, the research combined hermeneutic and phenomenological methods, employing semi-structured interviews with nine family businesses six in Sweden and three in Canada as the primary data collection method. This approach allowed for a rich understanding of the phenomena. Conclusion: The research underscores the complexities of succession planning in family businesses, emphasizing the importance of open communication, trust, personal ties, and effective succession planning. Our findings diverge from a one-size-fits-all approach, revealing a multifaceted reality that requires a more adaptable, context-specific approach to succession planning. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of succession processes in family businesses, presenting valuable insights for future research, policy decisions, and practical business strategies.

Past research has focused extensively on the influence of temperament and mother-child interactions for the development of psychopathology. However, there is a paucity of research that has examined the role of natural variations in temperament and mother-child interactions on socioemotional outcome in samples of low-risk typically developing children. Furthermore, most research has investigated temperament and mother-child interactions in separate studies. Accordingly, the present work addressed three issues: 1) the short-term and long-term continuity of temperament and joint attention in typically developing children; 2) the predictive value of temperament and joint attention for socioemotional outcome in typically developing children; and 3) joint attention behaviours in a clinical sample of children. Temperament was assessed through maternal report on the Infant Behavior Questionnaire (IBQ) beginning when children were between 18 and 3 7 months of age while joint attention was assessed through direct observation. All the IBQ subscales showed 9-month continuity and 4 of the 6 IBQ subscales showed moderate to high stability. Although there was 9-month continuity for all the joint attention measures, only 4 out of the 7 joint attention behaviors showed low to moderate levels of stability. There was little 4-year continuity or stability of temperament. Cross-sectional relations were found between temperament and socioemotional outcome at both 18 and 37 months of age as well as 69 and 88 months of age. Established joint attention, measured when children were between 18 and 37 months of age, significantly predicted internalizing behaviours in typically developing children between the ages of 69 and 88 months. Significant differences in joint attention were also found in a clinical sample of children with internalizing disorders between the ages of 5 and 8 years. The present results suggest that some ofthe same temperament and joint attention behaviours that are associated with atypical development are also associated with typical variations in socioemotional development. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

A core construct in the lifespan theory of socioemotional selectivity, future time perspective (FTP) refers to individuals’ perceptions of their remaining time in life. Its adaptation to the work context, occupational future time perspective (OFTP), entails workers’ perceptions of remaining time and opportunities in their careers. Over the past decade, several quantitative studies have investigated antecedents and consequences of general FTP and OFTP in the work context (i.e., FTP at work). We systematically review and critically discuss this literature on general FTP (k = 17 studies) and OFTP (k = 16 studies) and highlight implications for future research and practice. Results of our systematic review show that, in addition to its strong negative relationship with age, FTP at work is also associated with other individual (e.g., personality traits) and contextual variables (e.g., job characteristics). Moreover, FTP at work has been shown to mediate and moderate relationships of individual and contextual antecedents with occupational well-being, as well as motivational and behavioral outcomes. As a whole, findings suggest that FTP at work is an important variable in the field of work and aging, and that future research should improve the ways in which FTP at work is measured and results on FTP at work are reported.

The purpose of this study is to establish the psychometric five-dimension model proposed by Berrone, Cruz, & Gomez-Mejia (2012) with the objective of investigating the effect of SEW (Socioemotional Welath) in strategic choices made by family firms towards M&A decisions, specifically selling decisions. Studying SEW among different family firms and its implications on their M&A decisions will contribute to literature on SEW and M&A's involving family firms.

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During 2021, mergers and acquisitions (also known as M&A) experienced record-breaking numbers. In line with there being an array of M&As having been realized, there also exist various and multiple reasons for the company owners to go through with the process - or to decline the offer. As such, the motives and reasoning steering the owner’s decision regarding offers from external actors constitute a fascinating research area. Thus, out of interest of the aforementioned, the aim of this study is to provide a deeper understanding of the motives driving the decision-making of family-owned business owners in times of external offers being put on the table. Undertaking this endeavor, the frameworks of Socioemotional Wealth Theory (SEW) and Agency Theory (Economic-Rational) constitute key theoretical concepts. More specifically, we ask: how does the family who owns the business value an external offer - and why do they reason the way they do? Conducting semi structured interviews with four owners of small family companies located in Småland, this thesis provides insights and interpretations generated by a qualitative research design and abductive data collection. The conclusion drawn is that motives differ greatly. More specifically, the evaluation of external offers is generally impacted by values and priorities associated with SEW. However, in connection to suboptimal change-of-generation possibilities, the economic-rational reasoning receives greater attention. Thus, recognizing the importance of change-of-generation, future research should explore this factor more extensively.