Refreshing Typologies Based on Family Firms’ Goals: The Perspective of “First-Generation Enterprises”

Abstract

Purpose: The study aims to build a typology of family businesses with relatively short experience in the free-market economy. The typology is based on the goal preferences of the family businesses.

Methodology: The research is based on empirical data from Polish medium-sized and large enterprises, collected in 2014. Using cluster analysis and variance analysis, we identified four types of family enterprises based on their goal perceptions and tested the differences among them.

Results: The article distinguishes and characterizes four types of family enterprises: “business first, family second,” “only business,” “immature,” and “family first, business second.”

Originality/value: The proposed typology is similar to that presented in the subject literature. Nevertheless, our contribution resides in the discovery that even if family and business goals are integrated in the enterprise, one of the systems will be dominant. Moreover, enterprises that only prioritize family goals were absent in the explored data set.