Specifics of the development of family businesses in the Czech Republic

Abstract

In many developed countries, there has been a long tradition of family enterprises, and family enterprises have played a major role in national economies. A family enterprise can be regarded as the main pillar of economy, providing many job opportunities. In functioning market economies, family enterprises are associated both with small businesses but also large corporations, and present a major source of income for the state budget. The support of family enterprises is based on a sophisticated ecosystem of national institutions, associations, educational and research centres. In the Czech Republic, family businesses are mostly associated with small and medium-sized enterprises. These play a major role in the development of the endogenous potential of individual regions of the Czech Republic. Family enterprises are linked to a particular region, both commercially and socially, and form a regional business backbone and a basis for regional infrastructure. Their task also lies in the social area. The purpose of this article is to define a family business and to define the status of family businesses, in particular in the Czech Republic. The subject matter of the research is a family business as an economic feature. The scientific objective is to evaluate the current situation in the Czech Republic, and to propose functional ecosystem support of family enterprises, based on university educational programmes. The paper has been prepared on the basis of general theoretical scientific methods, in particular the method of comparison of secondary data in published publicly available researches, its analysis, synthesis, comparison, analogy, deduction and generalisation, and using a method of professional estimates. This study helped to establish that family businesses represent a true economic potential for the Czech Republic. A conclusion was made that an expert group for a family enterprise should be established, in cooperation with the Association of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises and Crafts of the CR and one of the universities in the CR. This group should coordinate the origin of a comprehensive educational programme covering issues such as the specifics of family business management, handing over a family enterprise to the next generation, risk management, how to manage the entry of family businesses to foreign markets, and how to access funds and subsidies for their further development.