AD ALTA
JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
the reasons behind the internationalization efforts of the family
businesses in 5 most important areas of business. The in-depth
interviews with the company owners revealed that production
companies use international markets to sell their products with
higher margins and thus more profit. Construction companies
reported to receive orders based on reliability, quality work and
being a cheaper workforce. The internationalization of the
business activity in the field of accommodation and catering
services is reflected in increasing number of guest nights, and the
use of catering services mainly by foreign tourists. In this
particular case we have identified a retrograde type of
internationalization, when an enterprise does not leave the
domestic business environment but is able to attract foreign
visitors who are willing to pay higher price for the quality
services provided than the domestic customers. This is
economically more beneficial for the enterprise and therefore the
company is targeting foreign customers applying the appropriate
marketing tools. In case of family businesses providing their
business activity in other fields, involvement in international
business activity was only the minimal. This is the reason we
have selected the five most important fields of activity, where
internationalization of business activity can be identified.
In business cluster entering international markets resp.
internationalizing their business activities we were trying to
examine those major motives that accelerated the
internationalization process. We have quantified these findings
using descriptive statistical methods, as well as the non-
parametric Friedman Test. The results of our analysis are
presented in tables (Table 2, Table 3).
Table 2
Quantification of motives that result in international
entrepreneurship of family businesses
Motives that result in international
entrepreneurship of family
businesses
Quantified
Score
Saturated domestic market
5.80
Fierce competition on the domestic
market
6.32
Success of other businesses in the
sector
4.76
Gaining perspective markets
5.04
Involve the enterprise in network
cooperation
4.26
Previous personal experience of the
owner of business with international
entrepreneurship
3.98
Effective utilisation of the production
capacity
5.15
Closeness of foreign markets
4.44
Source: own processing
Table 3
Testing statistics of the significance of the differences
between the motives of internationalization of entrepreneurship
Statistical Analysis
Value
Chi-square
18.124
Df
9.6
p
0.072
Source: own processing
Based on previous experience of solving similar issues in
research projects, we based our research on the hypothesis that
the motives for internationalization of business activities are
perceived in different terms by family businesses in relation to
entering international markets. We tested the hypothesis at
significance level α = 0,05.
H
0
there is no significant dependence between motives
that encourage family businesses to internationalize their
business activities
H
1
there is significant dependence between motives that
encourage family businesses to internationalize their business
activities
The result of the statistical analysis, when the value of p=0.072
indicates the approval of hypothesis H
0
according to which there
is significant dependence between the motives that encourage
family businesses to internationalize their business activities. It
means that businesses are motivated by several factors to
internationalize their business activities, and there is no
statistically significant dependency between them.
6 Conclusion
The entrepreneurial activity of family businesses results in
significant benefits to local, regional and the macro economy.
Businesses having a character of family business belong to small
and medium-sized company sector. It means that these types of
businesses are in family ownership, the management of the
company is represented by family members, and family
members are employed in the company. Family businesses in
Slovakia are not addressed adequate attention. This specific
group of business would deserve far more attention by
professionals. The gradual development tendency, development
activities and many specifies predetermine family businesses to
deserve the attention of the government, academics and other
stakeholders. The main objective of this article was to address
the issue of internationalization in the family business sector.
Partial objective was to uncover the motives that incentivised the
family businesses to enter the international markets.
Based on our primary research, conducted in four governing
regions of Slovakia: Bratislava, Trnava, Nitra and Trenčín we
can summarize that 65 businesses from the selected statistical
sample of 240 family businesses have internationalized their
business activities. It represents 27.08% of the businesses
involved in the research. In terms of business sector resp. field of
entrepreneurship, the highest interest in internationalization is
shown by businesses involved in production activity, trade,
transport and logistics. Investigating the motivation behind the
internationalization of businesses, we found that the most
motivating determinants are the following: saturated domestic
market, fierce competition on the domestic market and the
success of other companies in the same sector. We also verified
the validity of the hypothesis, whether the motives of
internationalization are perceived in different way by the family
businesses in relation to entering international markets. Based on
the statistical results we can summarize that several factors
motivate the family businesses to internationalize their activities,
and there is no statistically significant dependence between
them.
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