Business partnern i småföretag och dess involvering i den strategiska beslutsprocessen

Sammanfattning: Business partners have developed from the controller profession in recent times. The role is divided into the use of financial information and guidance and is expected to contribute in strategic decision-making. The study intends to contribute to the research gap, business partners within small companies. The research question of the study was "What parts and to what extent of the strategic decision-making process in small companies can the business partners influence and why?". The purpose of the study is to create understanding, which means answering how- and why questions which is achieved when answering the research question. The representative of the business partner in small companies was the CFO and not the controller as in larger companies. Interviews were conducted with four companies where a decision-maker and a CFO were interviewed. The questions were asked according to a semi-structured questionnaire. The questions were about the pillars of the study, which are the expectations of business partners from both interviewees, the use of financial information, guidance, and recommendations. Finally, questions were asked regarding the companies' strategic decisions and the involvement of business partners in the form of contributing financial information and guidance to discussions and documents. After collecting data, these were compiled and analyzed in themes similar to the questionnaire. The study's contribution provides indications for future researchers and the conclusions of the study showed that business partners in small companies had an influential part in strategic decisions where guidance and financial information are the role's biggest tools. The business partner has personalized roles with added responsibilities in these small businesses. The business partner's involvement is noticeably influenced by the characteristics of small businesses, but not as high as the study's original expectation. The characteristics, on the other hand, showed tendencies for even smaller companies to have a higher demonstrated degree of these characteristics. The proposed analysis model can be considered a representative model, it shows the context and how all parts are connected.