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.