Entrepreneurship of Family Businesses in the European Union

Sułkowski, Łukasz; Marjański, Andrzej; Sułkowska, Joanna

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-72239-9_12

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…Handler (1989) identifies the key factors that distinguish a family business: the concentration of ownership in the hands of family members, participation in management, and the involvement of more than one generation in running the business. The uniqueness of family firms is visible in their operation, where there is a combination of economic goals, the implementation of owner family's goals and the multigenerational perspective of creating the value of an enterprise (Sułkowski et al, 2018).…”

Section: The Essence Of Family Entrepreneurshipmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consolidation strategies of small family firms in Poland during Covid-19 crisis

Marjański¹,

Sułkowski²

2021

EBER

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The objective of the article is to contribute to research into family businesses by understanding how small family businesses are responding and adapting to the Covid-19 crisis. Research Design & Methods:The research method is based on a comparative analysis of case studies. To investigate the impact of Covid-19 on small family businesses in Poland, we conducted exploratory studies in 12 entities, based on 29 partially structured interviews with managers of these companies. Findings: The sudden spread of the Covid-19 pandemic around the world took many lives and caused severe restrictions in social and private life, including the business sector. While almost every firm has been affected by the pandemic crisis, small businesses, dominated by family businesses, are particularly vulnerable to it. Our findings show that the Covid-19 crisis affects all companies and presents a completely new challenge that has so far had no precedent. Small family businesses are not prepared for the prolonged state of uncertainty and tension threatening the continuity of their operations, which particularly endangers financial stability and employee maintenance. In responding to the crisis, small family firms cannot refer to previous experience or developed methods and patterns of operation. Implications & Recommendations: Small family businesses must quickly adapt their operations to changing conditions, regardless of their size and industry in which they operate. Covid-19 in small family businesses causes changes in their approach to running the business and family life. Contribution & Value Added: According to our knowledge, this is the first empirical study in Poland on the impact of Covid-19 on small family businesses. Article type:research article

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Section: The Essence Of Family Entrepreneurshipmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consolidation strategies of small family firms in Poland during Covid-19 crisis

Marjański¹,

Sułkowski²

2021

EBER

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“…Family businesses are a special group of economic entities that combine business activities with the family sphere [9][10][11]. They are one of the oldest forms of human economic activity.…”

Section: The Family Business-the Essence and Conceptmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, in statistics and scientific publications, such enterprises are often not separated into a particular category (their names do not always reflect the feature of familyhood or the name of the owner). There is no unambiguous definition of a family enterprise in the law of Poland and many other EU countries [10,21]. This results in a lack of proper reporting in CSO and Eurostat statistics.…”

Section: The Family Business-the Essence and Conceptmentioning

confidence: 99%

Family SMEs in Poland and Their Strategies: The Multi-Criteria Analysis in Varied Socio-Economic Circumstances of Their Development in Context of Industry 4.0

Siuta-Tokarska,

Juchniewicz,

Kowalik

et al. 2023

Sustainability

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The growing importance of family businesses in the global economy is related to the specificity of their activities, the increase in their contribution to GDP creation or providing jobs. It prompted the authors of this article to research these particular entities belonging to the small business. Considering the different economic conditions caused by the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic, the aim of the work was to examine and identify the strategies implemented among family enterprises from the SME sector in Poland in the period immediately preceding the COVID-19 pandemic (2018–2019) and during this pandemic (2020–2021). It was achieved through analyzing the literature of the subject, development of our own research method, analyzing the results of primary research, presenting conclusions and making recommendations for science and economic practices. The authors formulated research hypotheses verified within the framework of the conducted research. The research is of a pioneering nature and was designed in such a way as to present the similarities and differences between the classes of enterprises under study (micro, small and medium-sized), as well as the research periods in terms of the development strategies applied by them. In this respect, appropriate research methods were selected. The study combined qualitative methods (critical analysis of existing explanations of the concept and essence of family enterprises; review of the literature on enterprise development in the light of Industry 4.0) with quantitative methods (analysis of the taxonomy of structures based on the similarity index of the studied structures; comparative analysis by cross-tabulation). To perform the research thus planned, the authors’ study on the systematization of development strategies in family enterprises was adopted. Implementing strategies among family enterprises in the SME sector seems to be crucial in their development. As the results show, this is of particular importance in crisis periods. The pandemic crisis was particular, and the functioning of enterprises during it was problematic. Some of them had to suspend their activities, some ceased their operations altogether, and those that survived were successful. The path leading to this success was the specific development strategies that were implemented by the family businesses in the SME sector surveyed. It is therefore worthwhile, both from an academic point of view and from a business practice point of view, to learn about these strategies. The authors have identified and described them and presented the resulting conclusions for the future.

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“…The vast majority of enterprises are small- and medium-sized FBs, which are estimated to constitute approximately 80% of all economic entities. Also, research problems of FBs refer mainly to the small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), due to their significant share in the Polish economy as well as in the population of FBs (Sułkowski et al, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social capital drives SME growth: A study of family firms in Poland

Marjański

Sułkowski

Marjańska-Potakowska

et al. 2019

German Journal of Human Resource Management

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Poland’s successful political, economic, and social transformation since the 1990s has seen the dynamic development of family enterprises. Most of them are in the small- and medium-sized enterprises sector and have become an important part of the Polish economy. What drives these family firms is not necessarily physical or even financial capital, but continuous human or social capital. We analyze how family businesses are based on the interdependence of family ownership and business with the social capital of the family. This article reflects on how the government, in encouraging small- and medium-sized enterprise development in an economy with traditionally low social capital, can benefit from the example of high social capital found in family firms. The article contains the interpretation of the results of research conducted in 2009–2010 and 2014–2016.

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Entrepreneurship of Family Businesses in the European Union

Cited by 6 publications

References 10 publications

Consolidation strategies of small family firms in Poland during Covid-19 crisis

Consolidation strategies of small family firms in Poland during Covid-19 crisis

Family SMEs in Poland and Their Strategies: The Multi-Criteria Analysis in Varied Socio-Economic Circumstances of Their Development in Context of Industry 4.0

Social capital drives SME growth: A study of family firms in Poland

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