During their lifecycle, many small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) experience changes in the group of owners. New research shows that such changes are likely to give rise to issues that might affect the cooperation between the owners and the development of the company in a negative direction. As SMEs are considered ‘the backbone of Scandinavian economy’, such negative effects might also have a socio-economic impact. Therefore, it is important to take precautionary measures against the emergence of these issues as well as establishing appropriate solutions should they arise nonetheless. The present article commences a new interdisciplinary research project ‘Ownership Dynamicsin SMEs’ carried out by Center for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises in Denmark and Centre for Family Enterprise and Ownership in Sweden. The objective of the project is to generate deep knowledge on ownership dynamics in SMEs and on the complexity of the various types of ownership changes. Based on this knowledge, the three Cs (Control, Consensus and Compromise), that are identified in the article, are used as the foundation to develop guidelines and tools targeted at the three phases in ownership changes, which will be made available to SMEs. The project will also analyse if a gap exists between the regulatory need of SMEs that is identified using qualitative and quantitative studies and the paradigms applied in practice. Based on the result of this analysis, proposals for gap-filling provisions etc. will be developed.

Family businesses are known to rely on informal ways of working for maintaining their entrepreneurial spirit over time. In recent decades, scholars have challenged conventional planning-approaches to strategy and proposed alternatives to it, such as wayfinding. This approach centers around social practices, focusing on strategy- making unfolding from everyday activities. Drawing on socialization theory and a real-time case study in a family business, we elaborate upon three socialization processes to better understand entrepreneurial strategy- making: Strategy as embedded in daily practice; renewal when family members manage together; and strategy- making as an ordinary part of family business life. This paper’s contribution lies in exploring socialization theory for improving our understanding of the unintentional and indirect aspects of strategy-making.

The interface of the organization and its industry constitutes a vital space for development. Conducting a systematic literature review, we confirm that management research has paid rather little attention to exploring the relationship between the industry context and family business management to date (see also Le Breton Miller & Miller, 2015). Despite this lack of research, many scholars and practitioners alike could name numerous family businesses that hold world class in their niches. Given the pace of environmental changes, there is a clear need to better understand the interface of family business and industry over time. Building on our findings from a longitudinal, in-depth case study of a 4th generation family business and its niche of high-quality Scandinavian Design furniture, we propose a multi-level model of co-evolution that comprises not only the micro- and macro-levels of family business and its industry, but also the meso-level of inter-actor cooperation in its market niche.