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.

Thesis advisor: Hans de Wit / The family ownership context has been investigated across many business settings, within the manufacturing, trade, and services industries. The consensus among scholars has been that families that own and operate firms act in self-serving ways and frame organizational problems and make decisions with the primary goal of satisfying the family’s affective needs, i.e., preserve or augment what is referred to as socioemotional wealth. However, the theoretical reasoning of socioemotional wealth theory may fall apart in traditional university settings, where self-serving behaviors may lead to (pronounced) agency conflict. Universities have been long understood for their politicized governance environs in which multiple stakeholder groups have representation in decision-making. Within this reality, families involved in higher education management may be challenged to act self-servingly and protect or enhance certain socioemotional wealth. They may need to act in altruistic ways to avoid agency conflict. I investigate whether this is the case through a single, critical case study approach conducted at one family-owned or -managed university in India. I rely on what Yin (2003) refers to as “rival explanation as patterns” to test socioemotional theory relative to a rival theoretical framework. I ask the important question of whether this rival theory can address the limitations of socioemotional wealth theory when applied to the higher education context. As expected, findings generally suggest that where socioemotional wealth theory fails to capture family decision-making behaviors, the rival theory is relevant. This finding is important to consider and has several implications to theory, practice, and future research. Importantly, the findings support that current family-owned business theorizing is not enough to capture family decision-making behaviors in the context of traditional university settings. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

Purpose: The objective of this master's thesis is to investigate the factors that trigger the accountants to assume the diverse roles in Swedish SMEs within various business contexts.  Theoretical perspective: To satisfy the aim of this thesis we relied on role theory, organizational demography and socioemotional wealth.   Methodology: This thesis employs a deductive approach along with a quantitative methodology. A survey was conducted to gather data, resulting in a sample of 82 respondents who met the predefined criteria for this research.  The collected data was subjected to several statistical tests, such as the Spearman correlation matrix, multiple linear regression analysis, and principal component analysis. Findings: This thesis’s findings challenge the assumptions that firm age, family/ non-family CEO and accountant, experience, level of family engagement and ownership are the primary triggers for the beancounter, advisory, decision-maker and protector roles of the accountants. Instead, the thesis reveals a more nuanced perspective, indicating that these roles may be clustered and encompassed within a larger mixed role, which is referred to as co-leading-power role. This new understanding suggests a need to reevaluate and expand the understanding of the accountant's responsibilities within the organizational context. By acknowledging the existence of the co-leading-power role, we can gain a more comprehensive understanding of the multifaceted nature of accountants' contributions and their impact on organizational outcomes.