Digital Transformations in Family Businesses : An exploratory study examining how non-financial aspects influence digital transformations in family businesses

Sammanfattning: Background: The advancement and spread of digitalization is reshaping the commercial landscape for firms, executing proper and adequate digital transformations have therefore become a necessity in order to thrive in the digital era. Existing literature has indicated that the unique and distinctive characteristics that family businesses possess may shape the way such firms handle various change efforts. However, research of how family firms handle digital transformations is heavily undeveloped, where the non-financial aspects’ influence on such transformations has yet to be assessed. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how non-financial aspects could influence a digital transformation process in family businesses. By fulfilling this purpose, additional insights can be contributed and enable a more thorough understanding of how non-financial aspects influence digital transformations in a family business. Method: This qualitative and exploratory thesis, guided by an inductive approach, has utilized a multiple case study containing four different cases in order to generate more insights and create a better understanding regarding the topic at hand. Eleven semi-structured interviews have been conducted and a thematic analysis has served as guidance when interpreting and analyzing the data. Conclusion: The results of the research reveal that four non-financial aspects were identified through the multiple case study. However, merely three of the four non-financial aspects identified were found to influence digital transformations in family businesses, encompassing both advantages and challenges which consequently affect a digital transformation. Additionally, the results show that one of the non-financial aspects solely had a positive influence on digital transformations, while the other two had both a positive and negative influence.