The Role of the Family in Polish Family Enterprises

Abstract

<p>The sector of family enterprises is smaller in Poland than in countries with a long tradition of market economies. A large part of the family business is owned by the generation of their owners. The purpose of this article is to define the role of the family in ownership, management and supervision in family enterprises. Empirical research was conducted in 2014 based on the CATI questionnaire. The research covered a randomly selected nationwide sample of seven hundred and fifty-eight medium and large enterprises, of which three hundred and ninety-six entities were qualified on the basis of the SFI as family enterprises. The empirical data were evaluated based on the analysis of the structure of the population, the analysis of interdependencies and cluster analysis. The results of the research allowed formulation of three conclusions. Firstly, in the majority of enterprises, the family of owners has a dominant share in equity capital. Secondly, the company managements are relatively narrow and dominated by people from the generation of founders. Thirdly, supervisory bodies are found in a few enterprises and are made up in large part by the owners’ family members. This characteristic of Polish family enterprises leads to a generalizing statement that as family enterprises, they are mostly in the initial stage of development.</p>