DIAGNOSIS OF THE SITUATION OF FAMILY BUSINESS IN POLAND

Family businesses play a very important role both in the individual national economies and the global economy. Despite this, in many countries still they are underestimated, and there are not noticed their specific characteristics and terms of functioning. In Poland relatively recently there are started to pay more attention to this topic and noticed uniqueness of family businesses. However, there are still many things to do in this area. The purpose of this article was to present situation of family businesses in Poland, most important problems of their functioning and their perception of their own future. A conducted analysis allows to consider the situation of these entities as stable, with fewer and fewer enterprises willing to embark on new projects. Family businesses in their activities face a number of specific problems, among which come to the force the issues of succession and the lack of formal governance mechanisms. Equally important for the development of these enterprises are barriers resulting from insufficient academic support. The consequence of this situation is the lack of adequate educational offer for managers of family businesses (taking into account the specificity of these entities), or ignorance of the impact of promotion "family value" to brand’s perception by customers. However, it turns out that consumers have a positive attitude to family businesses and are often willing to pay more for its products. "Family value" may, therefore, be a basis for developing marketing activities of these enterprises, thus contributing to the achievement of a competitive advantage over non-familiar companies.

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