October 2018

In October 2018 FAME project was promoted among entrepreneurs – owners of SMEs with growth potential – participants of  CEPOR’s “The SME Buyers’ Club” educational program. The program was developed based on the good European practice in education aimed on preparation of entrepreneurs for small business takeover. In Europe, sale of the company represents exit option for more than 40% of aging entrepreneurs who are planning their retirement. In Croatia, it is important to raise the interest of growing SMEs for taking over small businesses whose owners want to retire, especially in the cases when their children are not interested to continue family business and opt for different career path.

The results of FAME project were promoted among members of CEPOR's Assembly on annual meeting in December 2018.  Members or CEPOR's Assembly are representatives of  institutional founders of CEPOR: Institute of Economics Zagreb, J.J. Strossmayer University of Osijek – Faculty of Economics in Osijek, Institute for International Relations Zagreb, Croatian Chamber of Economy, Croatian Chamber of Crafts and Trades, Development Agency Međimurje – Čakovec, IDA Istrian Development Agency – Pula, Center for Entrepreneurship Osijek.  CEPOR's participation in the project was highly rated as well as the project results.

The FAME (Family Business Sustainability and Growth) programme was successfully introduced to the academic public at Budapest Business School's very own Annual Research Days event, which aims to introduce more academia and research groups to each other and all university citizens.

During the event held on April 5-6, 2018 more than twenty interactive workshops, roundtable discussions and lectures were offered to the participants. In addition, this year the whole event was centred round the notion of responsible and sustainable thinking. Among other topics, the two-day event included ‘Will Hungary win or lose in cyber economy?’, ‘How will higher education alter over the next 20 years?’, ‘How can food production be made sustainable?’. And with full support from award winning winemakers and wine experts a brand new research project was introduced (‘Why don’t young people drink quality wine?’). All these were overwhelmed by thought-provoking conversations, inspirational debates, diverse and decisive research from research teams and educators at BBS – the representatives of high-level scientific life. During the two days, FAME programme magnetised participants with its stand and flyers, presenting the programme concept, the content of its modules and the didactic and as well as methodological implementation.

BTB Croatia

During training event in Leeds Mirela Alpeza from CEPOR presented the results Business Transfer Barometer research conducted by in Croatia in 2015.

Successful business transfer process is one of the key preconditions for long-term sustainability of small and medium-sized enterprises, which is most often associated with the retirement of the company owner and pulling out of the management, and often the ownership role in the company. In 2015 CEPOR - SMEs and Entrepreneurship Policy Centre has implemented Business Transfer Barometer Croatia survey and published the results. The survey was conducted on a random sample of 200 majority owners of small and medium-sized enterprises.

Based on the conducted survey in Croatia, it was determined that the share of enterprises whose owners belong to the 55+ generation amounts to 31% of the total number of enterprises in Croatia, that those enterprises have a share of 16.1% in the total number of employees in legal entities and a share of 18.9% of the total income generated by legal entities in Croatia. More than 5,300 enterprises with about 57,000 employees represent the risk group whose owners underestimate the complexity and length of duration of the business transfer process. An important characteristic of enterprises in the hands of 55+ generation is that majority of them were established in the 1990s (76%), and that their owners are also their founders in as much as 92% of cases, without personal experience of participation in the business transfer process. Based on the conclusions of the Business Transfer Barometer survey, and the recommendations of the European Commission for the improvement of national support systems for entrepreneurs in that process, CEPOR – SMEs and Entrepreneurship Policy Centre proposed a framework for future activities.

Conference paper: Investigates work-based learning, enterprise education and family businesses

November 2017

Professor David Devins presented a Conference paper (co-authored with Dr Brian Jones) at the 40^th Anniversary Conference of the Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (ISBE) Conference in Belfast. 

The paper adopts a comparative approach to the study and application of Enterprise Education and Work Based Learning to the higher education curriculum for small family businesses. The FAME project is discussed and used as an illustrative case-study of the concepts used in practice. In a fast changing world of work and business it is recognised that family businesses need supporting and that Enterprise Education and Work Based Learning can help. The paper suggests that the two concepts have a number of synergies and degree of cross-over but that differences of purpose, rationale and practice are evident. The two concepts can work together and help add value to the success of the FAME project and family businesses.  

ISBE’s Special Interest Group (SIG) in Family Business was launched at the conference and aims to build a vibrant community of active researchers whose outputs will inform policy and practice. Its membership will include academics practitioners and interested policy makers, and its research will address contemporary issues in family firm research across businesses of different sizes, operating in different sectors and locations. The SIG will include ISBE members who regularly contribute to the annual conference, along with a large number of non-members drawn from personal and professional contacts. To join the Family Business SIG please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

On 15-17 May 2018 Hanna Kelm from Cracow University of Economics, Faculty of Economics and International Relations, Department of the European Studies, took part in the 8th ‘Family Businesses’ Scientific Conference, organized by the University of Social Sciences in Łódź, Poland. She was presenting her article: „Are Women in Family Business Supported Enough by the Polish Family Policy?”. This article is a part of FAME (Family Business Sustainability and Growth) Project. ERASMUS+ KA2 Strategic Partnership 2016-1-HU01-KA203-022930

Link to the publication:

http://piz.san.edu.pl/index.php?id=221

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