Digitalisation and Innovation in the Largest Czech Family Businesses: Innovative Behaviour and Generational Decision-Making

Abstract

Digital technologies open up new possibilities and opportunities for family businesses to innovate and grow. They change the way companies think and implement innovation. Digital innovation supports new products, processes, and business models, and changes innovation processes. Family businesses in the Czech Republic are managed by the founding generation or the first generation of successors and are active in traditional industries. Research on Czech family businesses in the field of innovation is minimal. The innovation activities of companies operating in the Czech Republic are monitored by the statistical office according to the Oslo Manual methodology, without a focus on family businesses, including findings related to digital technologies and innovation. The aim of this paper is to determine how digital technologies are changing innovative behaviour and generational decision-making in the field of innovation in family businesses. To this end, a questionnaire survey was conducted on a research sample of 200 of the largest Czech family businesses. This ranking of family businesses is determined by Forbes based on selected financial indicators and specific characteristics related to family ownership. The results of the questionnaire survey made it possible to answer the following research questions: What digital tools are used in the innovation process? How does the introduction of digital technologies influence the implementation of certain types of innovation? How do the attitudes of the founding generation and the successor generation towards digital transformation differ? What are the main barriers to the introduction of digital technologies in family businesses operating in traditional industries? The questionnaire is evaluated using descriptive statistics. At the same time, cluster analysis, Ward’s technique with Euclidean distance, is applied, which allows the research sample of the largest family businesses to be divided into groups based on criteria related to innovation behaviour and generational decision-making. Family businesses must transform to survive and grow, because the skills and approaches needed to implement innovation and thus grow the business today are very different from those needed by previous generations.