The fourth transnational partner meeting of the FAME project was organised in Cracow hosted by the Polish partner, Cracow University of Economics on 26-27 April 2018.

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.

Based on the conducted Business Transfer Barometer survey, implemented in Croatia by CEPOR - SMEs and Entrepreneurship Policy Center in 2015 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.

In order to raise the awareness of aging entrepreneurs about complexity and importance of timely preparation for business transfer process CEPOR organized 6 regional awareness raising events called Family Business and Business Transfer Forum, in February and March 2018, in the following cities: Cakovec (Medjimurje region), Rijeka (Primorje region), Pula (Istria), Zadar and Split (Dalmatia) and Virovitica (Slavonia region).

The long-term goal was to ensure the sustainability of small and medium-sized enterprises and crafts in Croatia after retirement of their owners in order to preserve the jobs of employees working in these companies and their positive impact on the local economy and Croatian economy as a whole. During these events participants were informed about CEPOR’s activities, especially emphasizing the objectives and expected outcomes of FAME project that CEPOR is participating as a partner.

On 25 January 2018 MGYOSZ / Business Hungary successfully organised the closing event of the two-year long TRUST ME project in January 2018. We also took the opportunity to inform all participants on the progress of FAME project. FAME is the third station of the project series in which our Confederation cooperates with the project leader Budapest Business School. FAME project deals with the same topic of the first one, called INSIST project approaching in more detail, thus the participants of the multiplier event were pleased to receive developed information on family businesses’ issues, as many of them have been following the progress of INSIST project and the whole project series.

At the event the experts of our Finnish, French and Romanian project partner introduced the current situation of their respective countries regarding the project topic and shared some best practice examples with the participants.

With great interest we also had a round table discussion titled ‘Be mentor or be mentored, corporate experiences in mentoring’ moderated by the chef editor of our monthly e-bulletin, Magyar Gyáripar.

As final product of the TRUST ME project we printed the handbook for future mentors which were disseminated at the closing event. The online version of the handbook is available at the project website.

The third transnational partner meeting of the FAME project was organised in Brussels hosted by the Belgian partner MAC-Team on 7-8 December 2017.

November 2017

At MGYOSZ / Business Hungary’s webpage we traditionally publish our e-bulletin, Magyar Gyáripar ten times yearly.

Our aim with the bulletin is to regularly inform the stakeholders of the Hungarian economy on the most important and current issues, first of all from the viewpoint of MGYOSZ’s member companies. In the November edition of 2017 we introduced FAME project for the readers. The article covers the project history, introduces all project partners, the expected milestones and outcomes of the project.

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.

As Budapest Business School has an excellent connection with the National Association of Family Businesses in Hungary (CSVOE i.e. one of the most important advocacy organizations of family businesses in Hungary, it was within the framework of the signed Cooperation Agreement that the representatives of BBS were invited twice to the monthly Club Day event of the Association. In this way BBS had a great opportunity to inform members of the association about all development actions in progress connecting to Family Businesses. On average there were 50-60 participants at the Club Day event of CSVOE, which meant a large audience for the presentations about the FAME project.

At the first event, Ms Krisztina Németh (member of the Transition Module development team) and László Varga (project coordinator) introduced the results of the closed INSIST project (antecedent project of FAME) and as well as objectives, expected results and impacts of the FAME project. The participants were delighted about the continuation of the international projects of BBS in the field of Family Business development – involving the members of the association to the pilot actions of the results (workshops, pilot trainings).

At the second time, Mr László Radácsi PhD, director of Budapest LAB (Entrepreneurship Centre of BBS) reported on the establishment of Budapest LAB and its first important actions, the start of a wide-scale Family Business research in Hungary, in which the members of CSVOE had had an important role. Besides the first results of FAME, other international project of BBS were mentioned to the participants. Synergies between the research programme of the LAB and the FAME project have mutually reinforcing effects on each other.

BBS and the National Association of Family Businesses agreed that all information about the development actions of BBS are important and useful for the membership of CSVOE, and the representatives of BBS are warmly welcome to the Club Days in 2018 as well.

Transnational Training Event & Second Transnational Partner meeting in Leeds, May 2017.

Multiplier Event: Family Businesses as an Engine of Growth

May 2017 

Leeds Business School, Leeds Beckett University was delighted to host a multiplier event discussing family business research, policy and practice raising awareness and understanding of the FAME Project.

Students, practitioners and academics attended the multiplier event to promote the FAME project and family business research in Leeds.   The event was well attended, informative and engaging. Professor Leo-Paul Dana from Montpelier Business School and Dr Claire Seaman from Queen Margaret’s University made interesting observations on the nature and state of family business research. Two representatives from family business based in Yorkshire (A.W. Hainsworth of Leeds, and Street Food Chef of Sheffield) offered practice based real-world insights that served to stimulate a lively question and answer session.  The ability to adapt to changing market conditions and to have products and services that can feed business growth were just some of the many topics discussed.  Further information is available:

http://www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/events/faculty-events/family-businesses-as-an-engine-of-growth/

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.

The kick-off transnational partner meeting of the FAME project was organised in Budapest hosted by the coordinator Budapest Business School (BBS) on 23-24 January 2017.