In the Family Business Sustainability and Growth Project (FAME) members of the collating group organised the collection, the review and the analysis of the available literature in English, Hungarian and Polish language on the subject and prepared synthesised summaries thereof. This was a specific type of preparatory research. The results of collating served as the theoretical and conceptual foundation of the FAME project, and in this capacity, it provided the curriculum developers of the individual teaching modules with intellectual inputs. Thus, module developers could obtain a general overview on the literature surveyed also with the relationship between the individual modules.
The number of literary sources collected for the individual teaching modules was as follows:
- IO2 Fundamentals of SMEs uploads:
- Literature in English: 22
- Literature in Hungarian: 7
- Literature in Polish: 9
- IO3 Entrepreneurial finance
- Literature in English: 124
- Literature in Hungarian: 11
- Literature in Polish: 22
- IO4 Corporate governance, human resources, Immigrants’ integration
- Literature in English: 16
- Literature in Hungarian: 9
- Literature in Polish: 7
- IO5 Transition issues
- Literature in English: 32
- Literature in Hungarian: 8
- Literature in Polish: 4
The starting point of collating was that most of the theories, concepts and practices as well as other relevant issues that could be important to the FAME project were derived from the experience of large public or private companies. They had to be adapted to SMEs in general and family businesses in particular. However, this was the task of the module developers. Furthermore, in the collating exercise literary sources were identified, collected that have implications for SMEs in general and family businesses in particular. The objective of FAME was namely to elaborate teaching materials, curricula and syllabuses tailored for the specific features and needs of family businesses. This was the value added to the general literature covering the relevant topics. In spite of a great number of attempts, no comprehensive and coherent theory of family business has been developed so far that enjoys general acceptance by specialised in this field.
Nevertheless, the elaboration of such a theory was not covered by this collating exercise. Anyway, the major challenge was to tailor the methods and the research results of other economic sciences to the needs of family businesses but this was the task of the module developers. Although the design of the project was based on a holistic concept that applied to the three countries (the United Kingdom, Poland and Hungary) involved, the specific features of family business in the individual countries, too, were considered by highlighting national specificities.
In identifying, collecting and overviewing the literature, the target group, too, was considered. As defined in the original project proposal, the main objective was to design a Masters level specialization targeted at small and medium-sized family business leaders to be delivered as the second year of a Master programme in Entrepreneurship, responding to the perceived needs on behalf of family businesses for long-term support in practical and theoretical issues in family business sustainability. In line with the title and the contents of the FAME project, sustainability was also addressed, it was a guiding principle that appeared in the literature reviews and summaries based on them.