Values of family businesses in czech republic in the context of socioemotional wealth

Abstract

In the awareness of both academicians and the public, family businesses are associated with such values as honor, trust and trustworthiness, ethics, innovativeness, integrity, continuity, love, wisdom, stability, etc. Family businesses make reference to these unique, emotionally-charged aspects as part of their presentation, corporate social responsibility activities, and marketing campaigns. These values may be referred to as Socioemotional Wealth (SEW). In recent times, this topic has become a dominant paradigm of the family business research. This study is focusing on the analysis of the structure of socioemotional wealth of family businesses in Czech Republic. From the perspective of social psychology, psychosocial factors (social, behavioral, cognitive, affective, and motivational) and their relative share in the overall SEW were examined on the sample of 112 small and medium-sized family businesses. The source of data were standardized questionnaires made up of a series of open-ended questions and distributed in 2018-2019. The results of the qualitative content analysis indicate that Czech family business owners, regardless of business size, give priority to social and affective factors. In the distribution of factors, a certain dynamic change can be seen year on year. These findings are discussed with a focus on their practical use for planning of marketing communications, corporate social responsibility activities, and brand management of family business.