AD ALTA
JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
Friedman Test expressed as the following:
In addition to questionnaire survey, we also conducted in-depth
interviews with the owners of family businesses regarding the
questions we were more interested in to be answered. As a
supplementary method, the methods of descriptive statistics were
applied.
4 Results and discussion
In territorial terms, Slovakia is divided into 8 self-governing
regions. The first phase of our field research was conducted in
Western Slovakia, in the territory of Bratislava, Trnava, Nitra
and Trenčín regions. In the research sample, we can identify
small and medium-sized family businesses representing each of
the regions involved in the survey. In analytical terms we can
refer to four clusters the family business are grouped in on the
basis of statistical feature: company address. The findings are
shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1 Number of family businesses
Source: own processing
Figure 1 indicates that the highest number of business entities
represented Nitra region. Altogether 71 family enterprises were
from Nitra region, 66 represented Trnava region, 54 were from
Trenčín region and the lowest representation with 49 businesses
was registered in Bratislava region.
The selected sample of 240 family enterprises included
businesses from different sectors of the national economy. We
were interested in the main field of activity, as well as the
number of businesses in different sectors. The findings of
primary research are shown in Figure 2. The question regarding
the main field of business activity we found important because
of our main objective –
study the measures of
internationalization process among the family businesses. We
assume that the degree of internationalization and penetration of
international markets is partially linked to the field of business
operations.
As it is presented in Figure 2, the majority of family businesses
represented the production sector (62 enterprises), almost half of
them are conducting activity in the agricultural sector (35
enterprises in forestry and fishing), as well as close is the
number of businesses operating in accommodation and catering
services (34 enterprises). Retailing and wholesaling is provided
by 32 enterprises, 22 companies operate in transport and
logistics, while financial services are provided by 17 companies.
14 businesses operate in the real estate sector, construction
industry is represented by 13 companies and cleaning services
are provided by 11 companies.
Figure 2 The number and main field of the business activity
Source: own processing
The following question divided the research sample into two
parts: businesses internationalizing their activities and those do
not intend to enter international markets and do not want to
extend their business activity in international business
environment. The findings are shown in Figure 3.
65 businesses out of 240 enter the international markets,
representing 27,08% of the total number of businesses involved
in the research. These businesses use various ways to
internationalize their business activities. The remaining 175
enterprises, representing 72,92% of the business entities
surveyed, do not engage into the internationalization activity.
Figure 3 Internationalization of entrepreneurship
Source: own processing
We were closely interested in businesses internationalizing their
activities. We found it important to identify the field of business
activity characterized by internationalization. We assumed that
not every field of business activity, not all the sectors of the
national economy in which family businesses operate in is
interesting or suitable for internationalization. The results are
shown in Table 1.
Table 1
The most important fields of business activity
showing internationalization character
Fields of business activity
Percentage
Industrial production companies
31%
Retailing and wholesaling
21%
Transport and logistics
18%
Construction industry
16%
Accommodation and catering
services
14%
Source: own processing
In terms of entering international markets, the industrial
production companies (up to third of the businesses) have the
biggest interest in conducting business activity on international
markets. A little over a fifth is made up of those businesses
involved in trade activities. Less than a fifth of businesses
internationalizing their activities operate in the field of transport
and logistics. In the construction sector, 16% of the businesses,
while in providing accommodation services and catering 14% of
the businesses internationalize their activities. We have analyzed
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