Motives for Going International and Entry Modes of Family Firms in Poland

Abstract Currently, the internationalisation of family businesses (FBs) is an increasingly important research area. Substantial numbers of FBs are forced to expand into foreign markets in order to survive and grow in the competitive environment. However various research findings show that internationalisation of FBs may proceed differently than in the case of firms with different ownership structure. The article is both theoretical and empirical. In the theoretical part it focuses on theoretical concepts of firm internationalisation and specifics of internationalisation of FBs, especially their motives for going international. In the empirical part the quantitative approach was adopted. The results of the survey are presented on the sample of 216 firms, including 88 FBs (were investigated with the use of a survey questionnaire). Then, the statistical analysis is carried out.