Search

The article compares family small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from Germany and Sweden with a large family company in their work on corporate social responsibility and sustainability. This study aims to understand how and why (small) family firms work with sustainability. In total, 14 interviews were conducted with family firms in different industries. Large family companies are a benchmark, as they have worked with these questions since 2000. However, family SMEs also work with these issues. It is the family owner-managers who actively work with these questions. Accordingly, findings are of relevance for family firms and their managers, working with sustainability., CC BY 4.0Taylor & Francis Group an informa businessCONTACT Börje Boers Borje.boers@his.se School of Business, University of Skövde, Högskolevägen, Box 408,Skövde SE-541 28, Sweden

Die vorliegende Studie widmet sich der Analyse der entscheidenden Rolle von Communities of Practice (CoPs) als Instrumente desWissensaustauschs in familiengeführten Klein- und Mittelunternehmen (KMUs), insbesondere wenn sowohl Familienmitglieder als auch externe Fachkräfte gemeinsam an diesen Communities teilnehmen. Durch die Anwendung einer umfassenden Multi-Fall-studie über einen Zeitraum von acht Jahren wurden sechs kleine Unternehmen aus unterschiedlichen Branchen und verschiedenen Ländern einer Untersuchung unterzogen.

The purpose of this study is to understand turnaround strategies in family firms from a so-cioemotional wealth (SEW) perspective. This study follows a case study approach with four family firms, one from Germany, one from Scotland, and two from Sweden. Data collection builds on combining interviews with data collected from annual reports, homepages, and press clips. First, we contribute to the understanding of turnaround strategies in private family firms. Moreover, the SEW perspective offers new insights into how owning families prioritize the different turnaround strategies in relation to the SEW dimensions. Finally, our study also helps further an understanding of how owning families prioritize the SEW dimensions, by drawing on mixed gambles. These findings are used to develop a framework for explaining how SEW influences organizational decline and turnaround in private family firms. Finally, we develop propositions that future research could consider.

We investigate how family firms manage and overcome the Covid-crisis. We distinguish between different areas of crisis origin, i.e. the environment, the business or the family. We propose a process model of crisis management and draw on a interview study of German and Swedish companies. The model includes different activities which could be undertaken before, during and after a crisis-event. We propose four essential topics for family firms’ crisis management: (1) family firm leadership mindset, (2) multiple crisis management practices, (3) relationship and network strength and (4) process view.