Selected Characteristics of Family Business in the Construction Industry of the Czech Republic

The aim of this paper is to identify and outline the characteristics that distinguish family businesses from non-family businesses in the construction industry of the Czech Republic. The paper presents the results of the research that was carried out in the construction market of the Czech Republic in the years 2007-2011 and that indicated some connections with the current knowledge from the field of family business. Characteristics that distinguish family businesses from non-family businesses were defined by means of literary sources – Orientation to maintaining the business; Tendency to centralization; Orientation to local markets, Customer Orientation, Applied Business Strategy and Number of employees. In accordance with the theoretical concept, it was found out that family businesses have on average a smaller number of separate establishments than non-family businesses. It was found out that the observed family businesses slightly better manage to adapt their offer to customer requirements and also that they pay more care to customers, which supports the hypothesis of higher orientation of family businesses to customers. Business strategies of family businesses are focused on the strategy of differentiation. The tendency to employ a lower number of employees was also confirmed at both family and non-family businesses. In contrast, quality of production was slightly lower in family businesses.