M16 - International Business AdministrationReturn

The role of family businesses in management theory has been getting a topic of interest of academics and practitioners. This paper deals with the analysis of performance and financial structure gaps between Czech family and nonfamily firms. Using surname matching definition, we created a sample of 890 Czech large and medium-sized family businesses. Then we used the matched-pair investigation to determine the major gaps in profitability, labor productivity, liquidity and leverage between family and nonfamily firms. The results suggest that Czech family businesses are more profitable in terms of return on assets, profit margin and absolute values of earnings. Czech family businesses also have higher labor productivity and capital intensity, however, the asset turnover appears to be lower. Another important finding is that the overall level of debt is lower in the case of family companies which is accompanied by a higher level of liquidity and working capital.

Foreign and Internal Trade as the main disciplines in the field of research and study have developed theoretical systems that reflected historical development of international economic and business environment, governmental trade policy and international and domestic businesses. They created a basis, on which the Faculty of International Relations after 1989 has designed a new profile discipline "International Trade" in the framework of the "International Economic Relations" program. Very important features of the discipline, both of study and research areas, are a deep internationalization and an interdisciplinary approach. The discipline's development reflects world trends, international scientific knowledge and domestic specificities and introduces new terminology for new qualitative processes of international business to the Czech economy. To the discipline's development, very many excellent teachers and important personalities of the Czechoslovak and Czech economy contributed. The modern discipline comprehends analysis of global economic and institutional relations and of theoretical concepts, together with practical managerial branches. A prove of high standards of teaching and research is a prestigious accreditation EPAS by which the discipline "International Trade" has been awarded by the European Foundation of Management Development in 2012.