Generational Shadow in Polish Family Firms - May Second Generation Change Anything?
Generational Shadow in Polish Family Firms - May Second Generation Change Anything?

Author(s): Robert Zajkowski, Ada Domańska, Beata Żukowska
Subject(s): Business Economy / Management, Micro-Economics, Family and social welfare, Socio-Economic Research
Published by: Masarykova univerzita nakladatelství
Keywords: generational shadow; family firms; generations in family firm; family enterprise goals;
Summary/Abstract: In the paper the issue of the reciprocal impact of both first and second generation of the family on the family businesses was taken into consideration. The main attempt was to investigate whether in the companies in which ‘generational shadow’ effect exists, inheritors are able to have a stab at the company functioning. Hence the aim of this paper is to identify a potential impact of the second generation on the aspects of functioning of family businesses. The differences in the average perception of family business purposes were statistically analysed in two groups of companies: one – with a presence of only founders‘ generation and the other with a presence of two generations among company’s owners. The main conclusion which was that a presence of the second generation of the family in the owners and managerial staff structure modifies partly the perception of long term objectives of family business functioning. On the other hand, it is necessary to reject the assumption that the presence of second generation of the family in the owners and managerial staff structure impairs the perception of objectives directed towards the family and family values. The results reveal that despite of the ‘generational shadow’ effect, the existence of the successors’ generation might lead to particular changes in company’s functioning and perception of various processes in family businesses.

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