Management Succession in Polish Small and Medium Enterprises in the Light of Empirical Studies

Purpose: The article presents the methodology and empirical study results on management succession in Polish small and medium enterprises aimed at the identification of scope, form effects, and barriers in management succession and situational conditionings of that process. Design/Methodology/Approach: The empirical studies were accomplished with the use of survey technique on random-target array of 200 Polish private enterprises. The respondents were entrepreneurs – owners or main shareholders of the examined subjects. To formulate conclusions selected statistical analyses were used, in the form of quantitative / percentage indications of specified variants of responses from the questionnaires, as well as the correlative calculus of variables. Findings: The author managed to positively verify the hypothesis of the limited scope of managerial successions in managing polish SMEs, demonstrate the positive effect of these processes upon the development of enterprises, as well as to indicate their main restrictions. We also revealed the connections between the features of succession and the selected characteristics of enterprises. Practical Implications: The author sees the practical effects of propagating study results in the possible changes in the sceptical attitudes of Polish entrepreneurs towards managerial forms of succession in management, which should result in development and improvement of effectiveness in enterprises. Originality/Value: The presented studies have no equivalent in domestic literature, and their results are of importance both for those practicing management and for demarcating the directions of further studies.