Winners in the family thesis competition
The Centre for Family Enterprise and Ownership is proud to announce the winner of the JIBS/CeFEO Family Business Thesis Award 2016.
We congratulate Anna Maria Bornhausen and Konstantin Kuehl for their excellent thesis entitled "Opening the Black Box of Financing Decision-Making: Exploring the Process, Actors and Arenas in Family Firms".
The students conducted a multiple case study research proposing an original explanation of how the financing decision-making process unfolds in family firms. The topic is particularly interesting because of the interplay of financial and non-financial goals in family firms. The authors interviewed 15 respondents in 3 case companies as well as 2 consultants, collecting more than 18 hours of empirical material.
Drawing on strategy-as-practice and the concepts of strategic actors and arenas, the thesis uncovers where the process unfolds and who is involved. The authors show how the financing process develops through the alternation between formal and informal arenas, and varying practices of conformity and friction. The contribution is solid, well written and based on in-depth empirical analysis. The thesis represents a valid contribution to family business research as well as an interesting reading for practitioners who are involved in financing decision-making processes.
The award is assigned every year by a jury consisting of professors from Centre for Family Enterprise and Ownership at JIBS that evaluates and awards Bachelor and Master theses on family business topics written by JIBS students during the past academic year. The thesis is awarded with a monetary prize of 3000 SEK.
Congratulations to Anna Maria and Konstantin, and their thesis supervisor Hans Lundberg!
