Strategia sukcesji władzy i własności w spółkach rodzinnych notowanych na Giełdzie Papierów Wartościowych w Warszawie
The Succession Strategy in Family Businesses Listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange

Author(s): Aleksandra Majda-Kariozen
Subject(s): Economy, Business Economy / Management, Socio-Economic Research
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
Keywords: succession strategy; family business; management
Summary/Abstract: The purpose of this publication was to diagnose the process of managerial and ownership succession in Polish family businesses listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. It is, to the best of the author’s knowledge, the first such study in the field of planning and implementing the intergenerational transfer of management functions and ownership, which applies only to family businesses whose shares are the subject of trade on the capital market in Poland. The subject is all the more important given that the process of first generational change in key management positions has already started in many Polish family businesses listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Additionally, within the context of the existing subject literature, planning and implementing the first succession strategy is particularly important for family entities and as such is bound to be associated with a higher level of risk than the subsequent intergenerational transfers. This publication is theoretical and empirical, and consists of four chapters. In the theoretical part, spanning the first three chapters, secondary sources were used to conduct literature studies on the basis of which conclusions have been formulated. The empirical part, presented in the last, fourth chapter, is a report on the author's own research conducted and completed in July 2018. On the basis of the data collected on the generation number and the number of people holding ownership in the analyzed family businesses, and the number of children holding positions in management and supervisory bodies, it may be observed that seniors in the analyzed entities are much more likely to include the offspring in the company's activities, but do not transfer the ownership to them. The results of the statistical tests carried out have shown the lack of dependence between the concentration of family ownership and the succession of management functions. This means that including offspring into the company's bodies is not dependent on the scope of the family ownership. At the same time, the analysis of the age of the seniors and the involvement of his their children in the company's activity may lead to a conclusion that the succession of management functions, as measured by the involvement of children in company bodies, is determined by the seniors’ age. Therefore, the older the senior, the more involvement of offspring in the company's bodies has been noted. Also, the relationship between the period of holding the position of chief executive officer (CEO) by the senior and the generational transfer of the management functions has been analyzed. Statistical tests have been performed to determine the correlation between the senior age and the succession of the ownership. The results suggest that in companies where the senior is older, the children are allotted more shares. However, the author’s findings also indicate that there is no relation between the period of holding the position of senior chief executive officer (CEO) and the succession of ownership. The results of the qualitative research made it possible to establish certain common features that occur in the case of family businesses that have started the succession process. These features create a specific canon of behavior of family businesses included in the study on succession.

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