COMPARISON BETWEEN INVESTMENT ACTIVITIES OF FAMILY BUSINESSES IN POLAND AND IN OTHER EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

Purpose of the article The aim of this article is to describe and discuss investment activities of family businesses in Poland as compared to the corresponding activities in particular European countries. The paper is of both theoretical and empirical character. Terms such as "investment" and "investing" have been discussed as well as issues regarding the functioning and activity of family businesses. The article presents and examines results of the research "Family businesses barometer. Awaiting changes", which is a consecutive edition of KPMG report. Methodology/methods Apart from the theoretical analysis of the terms regarding investment activity of family businesses, research report has been presented and discussed. Computer Assisted Web Interview was employed as a research method. Interviews were conducted from the May 1st to July 5th 2015. Apart from Poland, following countries participated in the research: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Lithuania, Latvia, Malta, Germany, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Sweden, Hungary, Great Britain and Italy. Scientific aim The general aim of this article was the analysis of the specificity of the activity of family businesses - their problems, expected changes and strategies they implement in their economic entities. "Barometr firm rodzinnych. W oczekiwaniu na zmiany" ("Family businesses barometer. Awaiting changes") is a special research covering European countries and is repeated semi-annually. Due to this data, there is a possibility to follow changes occurring in time in the assessment of the companies. Moreover, we can compare domestic entrepreneurship with the European one. Findings Polish family businesses as compared with the ones in other European countries look less optimistically into the future in comparison with previous years. These companies focus, to a large extent, on maintaining their previous income, employment and foreign investments rather than focus on profit maximization. Conclusions Increasing labour costs, tougher competition and unstable political situation are a cause for concern to family businesses when they conduct investment activities. They expect changes such as lower tax rate, simplified tax system and lower non-wage labour costs. These firms believe that due to this kind of changes they could further develop their activity.