ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates the case studies of three family businesses in Finland that experienced premature and unplanned succession due to the unexpected death of the owner, CEO, father, and husband. It considers the literature on the departure of the heterogeneous family business and primarily draws on research on the interconnectedness of family and business and on the succession process and emotions. The chapter presents the theoretical grounds of the study. It explains the methodological approach applied and presents the cases and analyses. The chapter suggests that the research on effectuation as a decision-making logic and on grief recovery processes to gain a better understanding of how to cope with premature succession after the loss of a CEO and family member. It argues that emotions are important in business life, although our cases might be extreme. The family business literature conceptualises family business systems as comprising of the family, the business and the ownership sub-system.
