Factors in the Development of Family Businesses in the SME Sector: Analysis and Assessment of Their Importance in Strategic Enterprise Management

Research background: Modern enterprises operate in conditions of very dynamic changes, where the increasing complexity of the environment affects their ability to achieve their assumed organizational goals. These goals are extremely important in the context of the current functioning of the enterprise, as well as in moving towards sustainable economic development. Functioning in this era of unpredictability and turbulence is a significant challenge not only in the context of the current activities of business entities, but especially for their development. An important element in the aspect of development is the ability to recognize and identify development factors that may directly and/or indirectly affect the results of the activities or projects that are undertaken. In this context, undertaking research on development factors during the COVID-19 pandemic (referred to in the literature as a time of crisis in global economies) seems to be fully justified, and the adoption of comparative periods, i.e., before and during the pandemic, has cognitive value. This value also refers to the possibility of recognizing the conditions needed for the strategic management of the enterprise in the context of a transformation towards sustainable development goals. The authors of the study point to the research gap related to the lack of in-depth and multifaceted research on the factors in the development of family businesses in the SME sector. Purpose of the article: The purpose of the paper is to analyze and assess the development factors of family businesses in the SME sector in Poland during two periods, namely 2018–2019 (two years before the COVID-19 pandemic) and 2020–2021 (two years in the COVID-19 pandemic period). Methods: To achieve this aim, a comparative analysis of the performance of family businesses in the SME sector was carried out based on the author’s own data. These data were obtained through surveys (CAPI method) carried out among micro-, small-, and medium-sized family enterprises in the Masovian Voivodeship in Poland, taking into account the two research periods indicated above. Statistical methods were also used in the data analysis. The average values of the assessments of the importance of groups of development factors for the development of the enterprise were analyzed using an analysis of variance with repeated measures in a mixed model, because the average assessments were determined on an interval scale. Tests of between-subject effects made it possible to compare enterprises of different sizes, and tests of within-subject effects and tests of interactive effects made it possible to compare two time perspectives. Findings and value added: The findings of this study contribute to the literature on family businesses in the SME sector and the factors in their development. The implementation of this publication contributed to filling the revealed research gap, as well as solving the formulated research problem, along with verifying the research hypotheses formulated in the work. Based on the research conducted, the main determinants of development in family enterprises in the SME sector were identified, taking into account both individual factors and groups of factors. The conducted research allowed us to show the similarities and differences both between the individual size classes of these enterprises and between the research periods. The added value of the empirical research conducted refers to the identification of factors for the development of family enterprises in the SME sector, their comparison in terms of the size classes of these entities, and the comparison of their importance in economically and socially diverse research periods, i.e., before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. It should be emphasized that while the literature on the subject presents research in this area in relation to family enterprises in general, research on these family units belonging to the SME sector, along with their division into size classes, is much less common. The implementation of the research is, therefore, an important contribution to the development of the broadly understood science of the development of family enterprises, showing the importance of groups of factors in their development in light of the changing conditions of the modern economy in the individual size classes of these entities.