Succession Planning in Polish Family Businesses : An Exploratory Investigation

The main aim of the paper is to identify the succession strategies (especially the ways in which they attempt to balance the strive to maintain family's control over the company with the goal of firm's growth) of the first generation of Polish entrepreneurs. Research survey was conducted on a random sample of 496 family enterprises in first quarter of 2009 (first phase, survey) and 61 family enterprises in third quarter of 2009 (second phase, in-depth-interview). Research project “Succession Scenarios in First Generation of Polish Entrepreneurs” was conducted in the years 2008-2010 by Aleksander Surdej and Krzysztof Wach was financed by Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education (Project no. 1326/B/H03/2008/34)