COMPARISON OF PERCEPTION OF EXTERNAL INFLUENCES ON FAMILY BUSINESSES IN THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC AND IN SELECTED EUROPEAN COUNTRY

The paper will focus on the evaluation of business environment in two member states of the European Union (EU) - Slovak Republic (SR) and Republic of Malta (MT). The subject of closer interest is a family business in the SMEs category. The essence of the research is to obtain reliable and up to date knowledge of the family business in these two countries. The article will contribute to raising awareness of external business environment for SMEs, particularly for family business in selected countries. The paper also determines differences between family and non-family SMEs businesses in the Slovak Republic, so we can distinguish a family business as a separate category of business for the purpose of promoting and statistics. There are number of incentives for family businesses in various countries, e.g. through preferential tax rates in case maintaining business to the next generation, incentives for family start-ups, training, mentoring and support for research and development. Based on the results we suggest the recommendations to improve the business environment for SMEs focusing on family business in both countries.