Controlling tools in family and non-family businesses: A case study of woodworking and furniture industry

Research background: Many studies point to the fact that the use of controlling in family businesses differs from that in non-family businesses and depends on factors that cannot be observed in non-family businesses. The research into the application of controlling tools in family and non-family businesses operating in the woodworking and furniture industry in Slovakia as a unique interconnection of the issues of family businesses, controlling and the Slovak woodworking and furniture industry has not been so far carried out. Purpose of the article: The aim of the paper is to identify significant differences in the application of tools of individual controlling subsystems between family and non-family businesses operating in the woodworking and furniture industry in Slovakia on the basis of a comprehensive mapping of the utilization of controlling tools in the businesses in question. Methods: The mapping of the issue was carried out by questionnaire-based method. In total, seven hypotheses were formulated. The validity of the assumed hypotheses was verified by two sample z-test. To generalize the obtained results to the entire basic set, verification of the minimum sample size was carried out. The representativeness of the sample was verified by the Pearson's Chi-square test of goodness-of-fit. Findings & value added: Based on the findings, it can be concluded that there are indeed significant differences in the use of controlling tools between family and non-family businesses operating in the industries in question. The results have showed the existence of significant differences in the use of tools of all examined controlling subsystems. It can be concluded that the application of controlling tools in the family businesses is significantly different from that in the non-family businesses. It can also be observed that family businesses of the industries in question tend to use controlling in an insufficient way and in general to a lesser extent compared to non-family businesses. The main benefit of the paper is the identification of the use of controlling tools in Slovak family businesses operating in the woodworking and furniture industry compared to non-family businesses. This knowledge can be valuable for practitioners and researchers in the field. The contribution also refers to the future direction of the development of the Slovak woodworking and furniture family businesses.