| dc.description.abstract | What is so unique about family businesses? What makes them so special and, somehow distant to those who is not a part of the family? What really defines a family business and, how does it feel to be a part of it? These are a few of the questions we asked ourselves before we started this study. We came
to focus on the CEO position and, who to choose to represent, not only the business but the family legacy as well. In Sweden most small and medium sized companies are family businesses. They contribute to society in very important ways, by providing jobs, goods and services. We chose to study two family businesses, and interview their CEOs, their chairman of the board and four employees with responsibilities for HR, production, finances and purchasing. We wanted to get an overview how all of them felt about the family business and, if it was something special about the family business´
characteristics that could influence their choice of CEO. A part of the uniqueness within family businesses is that some of them have the opportunity to choose one of their own family members as their CEO, which cannot be done in a non-family business. During the study we have tried to see if a few chosen theories and models developed by other scientists could explain our results. We have used models explaining the nature of family businesses and what normally distinguish them from others. We have also used theories explaining the complex relationship between the owners and the CEO and the importance of skills and knowledge required.
We found out that the two studied family businesses seem to have certain core characteristics in common. They are both kind, responsible, simple, gentle, safe, long-term minded and proud. These characteristics can be linked to their choice of CEO, since he or she must be reflect the characteristics
to fit in. Choosing one of the owning family members to be the CEO can therefore reduce costs and conflicts within the business. | sv |
