Table A1. Themes extracted from... | Emerald Publishing

Table A1.

Themes extracted from empirical data

First order concepts	Second order themes	Aggregate dimension
• We do it together. Though, my father still has a big say. He is in his seventies, in the business for 50 years, has been in most of the situations, but world and surroundings have changed. So, we have wild discussions sometimes. We as a leaders (owners) of the company get together every second week where we discuss important decisions. (Julia) • On the big decisions, we do it all together (Alva)	Joint decision-making in family meetings	Informal family oriented decision-making mode
• Since we are a small family business we talk about it internally, me and my husband and my father, we talk about it and decide what to do. And I think we are quite different, both me and my father and my husband, we have different views of things and sometimes we talk about it in the family with my siblings too. But, we think in different ways, and I think it is good that we have different view in things, it is good. (Astrid) • We discuss on daily basis and we can sit down and discuss them, we discuss them all the time so that we can come to decision and a solution. Mostly, me and my husband, we discuss also with my husbands’ Dad, he is here but me and my husband have the final decision (Saga) • We have two companies, in two cities (one in Kronberg and one in Blekinge). I am responsible completely in one of them, while in the other one I am in charge for marketing and HR, and next week will decided who is going to take the role of CEO. We don’t use the titles. (Julia) • When I was working in a bank you needed to do everything correctly, of course that is a good thing. But, it was also having new ideas and how can we solve this, and I am like “Oh, we can do like this, so why do we do all these steps?” I felt like it wasn’t that much listened to those suggestion that I had. [Now at the family business] when it is working good it’s like actually “I have done this”, that’s satisfying (Astrid) • On the other hand we have different areas that we are talking about so somehow I can take decision that are under my role. sS somehow we trust each other quite a lot so everyone has their thing they’re working with but as now we are actually building a factory down in [small rural town] and that is of course something. My brother he’s taking care of you know all the running everyday stuff but on the big decisions we do it all together (Alva)	Joint decision-making in daily conversations with family members
• We always have been talking a lot between us. We discuss all bigger decisions, not maybe have formal meetings to decide but always talk about it. And also, with the other staff in the office or in the production if it’s something concerning them. We talk a lot about it, still do, good and bad sometimes it takes time to make the decision to make sure. My father always and I’m a bit same way but he’s worse than me, he wants everybody to like the decision. So, if one or two says No, I’m not sure than he will take the decision until everybody says ‘well, OK’ so, that’s not always so good. We, I never take any hard decisions without talking to anybody else. […] Not all of them, we are a group people like five (5) and most decisions go through that group. They are more in a senior position. (Elsa) • Then, we tell us not to do anything but that’s not always good as well, because like I said my brother was very much on the opposite side of things and the rest of us were more like, “No, let’s stay like this, this is good, we can manage”, and he was like “No, you should do this”. He did actually push the company quite much forward as well. And like I said before the ones in the senior group, we are quite alike so, it’s not very often that we don’t think the same on decisions, and that’s good in a way. But in one way you can get to streamline sometimes, we pick the same too often I think, not good actually. And then you can discuss (Elsa)	Consensus based decision-making including nonfamily senior management	A semistructured family/employee consensus mode
• My brother and I run the company. We make decisions together. How decisions are made depends a bit on the staff and their thoughts and views. You listen to the staff when you make decisions (Greta) • You make sure that the staff is comfortable with the decision and what it will mean. Everyone should feel secure in the change that the decision may have entailed (Greta) • When we had a company board, we did not make the decisions in the board because they did not work with the customers and in the business. The board is above the business so they did not really know how a decision could affect the business. That is why we make decisions together with employees instead of a board (Greta)	Decision-making involving nonfamily employees
• I can see somethings much longer ahead.[…]. My father was the chairman of the board and I had to get him on the board to see what I was doing and he was with me and I was the chairman of the meeting, you can say, and I was running the meetings. We started with 6 meetings a year and we changed the whole mindset with the board meetings and I said that I can do so much but I can’t do everything. So, we took in an outside chairman in 2015 and he has helped us and helped me to guide the others to look up and not to be so operative in, to have an Eagle eye vision at the company, at the meetings not discuss small things. And that had been very good. My father has the tendency to look very way back and he has helped us make him realise that we are not talking about the past but we are discussing the future here. (Maja) • Ok. With hard decisions, of course the board is quite important as well when we take really big decisions. It’s good to have discussions with them, as they’re good at different things (Elin). • We took in an outside chairman in 2015 and he has helped us […], to have an Eagle eye vision at the company, at the meetings not discuss small things (Maja). • We have active external board as well, so we have 3 persons outside the company in the board who are helping us with the different qualities, economic, law, and also an old Swedish CEO in our business. They help us and Yes, they take decisions with us (Elin). • So, that’s why the head of the board he has been helping me, so it doesn’t have to take 2 years but take short times to understand what I was thinking and how need to be to get us this far (Maja).	Joint decision-making including board members from outside family business to facilitate decision-making process. Joint decision-making including board members from outside family business to get an outside strategic viewpoint.	Formal board mode with nonfamily members

First order concepts	Second order themes	Aggregate dimension
• We do it together. Though, my father still has a big say. He is in his seventies, in the business for 50 years, has been in most of the situations, but world and surroundings have changed. So, we have wild discussions sometimes. We as a leaders (owners) of the company get together every second week where we discuss important decisions. (Julia)• On the big decisions, we do it all together (Alva)	Joint decision-making in family meetings	Informal family oriented decision-making mode
• Since we are a small family business we talk about it internally, me and my husband and my father, we talk about it and decide what to do. And I think we are quite different, both me and my father and my husband, we have different views of things and sometimes we talk about it in the family with my siblings too. But, we think in different ways, and I think it is good that we have different view in things, it is good. (Astrid)• We discuss on daily basis and we can sit down and discuss them, we discuss them all the time so that we can come to decision and a solution. Mostly, me and my husband, we discuss also with my husbands’ Dad, he is here but me and my husband have the final decision (Saga)• We have two companies, in two cities (one in Kronberg and one in Blekinge). I am responsible completely in one of them, while in the other one I am in charge for marketing and HR, and next week will decided who is going to take the role of CEO. We don’t use the titles. (Julia)• When I was working in a bank you needed to do everything correctly, of course that is a good thing. But, it was also having new ideas and how can we solve this, and I am like “Oh, we can do like this, so why do we do all these steps?” I felt like it wasn’t that much listened to those suggestion that I had. [Now at the family business] when it is working good it’s like actually “I have done this”, that’s satisfying (Astrid)• On the other hand we have different areas that we are talking about so somehow I can take decision that are under my role. sS somehow we trust each other quite a lot so everyone has their thing they’re working with but as now we are actually building a factory down in [small rural town] and that is of course something. My brother he’s taking care of you know all the running everyday stuff but on the big decisions we do it all together (Alva)	Joint decision-making in daily conversations with family members
• We always have been talking a lot between us. We discuss all bigger decisions, not maybe have formal meetings to decide but always talk about it. And also, with the other staff in the office or in the production if it’s something concerning them. We talk a lot about it, still do, good and bad sometimes it takes time to make the decision to make sure. My father always and I’m a bit same way but he’s worse than me, he wants everybody to like the decision. So, if one or two says No, I’m not sure than he will take the decision until everybody says ‘well, OK’ so, that’s not always so good. We, I never take any hard decisions without talking to anybody else. […] Not all of them, we are a group people like five (5) and most decisions go through that group. They are more in a senior position. (Elsa)• Then, we tell us not to do anything but that’s not always good as well, because like I said my brother was very much on the opposite side of things and the rest of us were more like, “No, let’s stay like this, this is good, we can manage”, and he was like “No, you should do this”. He did actually push the company quite much forward as well. And like I said before the ones in the senior group, we are quite alike so, it’s not very often that we don’t think the same on decisions, and that’s good in a way. But in one way you can get to streamline sometimes, we pick the same too often I think, not good actually. And then you can discuss (Elsa)	Consensus based decision-making including nonfamily senior management	A semistructured family/employee consensus mode
• My brother and I run the company. We make decisions together. How decisions are made depends a bit on the staff and their thoughts and views. You listen to the staff when you make decisions (Greta)• You make sure that the staff is comfortable with the decision and what it will mean. Everyone should feel secure in the change that the decision may have entailed (Greta)• When we had a company board, we did not make the decisions in the board because they did not work with the customers and in the business. The board is above the business so they did not really know how a decision could affect the business. That is why we make decisions together with employees instead of a board (Greta)	Decision-making involving nonfamily employees
• I can see somethings much longer ahead.[…]. My father was the chairman of the board and I had to get him on the board to see what I was doing and he was with me and I was the chairman of the meeting, you can say, and I was running the meetings. We started with 6 meetings a year and we changed the whole mindset with the board meetings and I said that I can do so much but I can’t do everything. So, we took in an outside chairman in 2015 and he has helped us and helped me to guide the others to look up and not to be so operative in, to have an Eagle eye vision at the company, at the meetings not discuss small things. And that had been very good. My father has the tendency to look very way back and he has helped us make him realise that we are not talking about the past but we are discussing the future here. (Maja)• Ok. With hard decisions, of course the board is quite important as well when we take really big decisions. It’s good to have discussions with them, as they’re good at different things (Elin).• We took in an outside chairman in 2015 and he has helped us […], to have an Eagle eye vision at the company, at the meetings not discuss small things (Maja).• We have active external board as well, so we have 3 persons outside the company in the board who are helping us with the different qualities, economic, law, and also an old Swedish CEO in our business. They help us and Yes, they take decisions with us (Elin).• So, that’s why the head of the board he has been helping me, so it doesn’t have to take 2 years but take short times to understand what I was thinking and how need to be to get us this far (Maja).	Joint decision-making including board members from outside family business to facilitate decision-making process.Joint decision-making including board members from outside family business to get an outside strategic viewpoint.	Formal board mode with nonfamily members