ИСТИНА

This paper examines the role of women in the management of Russian and Kazakhstani family-owned small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the relationship with sole or shared ownership of SMEs. The authors first explore the factors and motivations that influenced the decision to become a business owner and highlight the key features of the development of women-led family-owned SMEs. Then they present and discuss the empirical data obtained through a series of in-depth interviews with female business owners, respondents from family-owned SMEs, who agreed to disclose information about themselves, their family and their business. The used questionnaire is a synthesis of the basic INTERGEN project questionnaire combined with questionnaire elaborated by authors and allowing to adapt the basic questions to the social and cultural characteristics of Russia and Kazakhstan, as well as taking into account the realities of the post-COVID situation and subsequent political instability. The main findings show commonality among the respondents, including a strong sense of duty to one's own family, priority given to children, categorical denial of doing business with "friends" and skepticism about doing business with relatives. The analysis leads to the conclusion that Russian and Kazakhstani women's family-owned SMEs form competitive advantages based on building a network of mutually beneficial partnerships and networking, well-established quality control methods and compliance with their own obligations, intentional development of contacts leading to mutually beneficial cooperation; active use of e-commerce, digital CRM platforms and social networks (Instagram). Women business owners showed knowledge of modern digital technologies at a high level, a desire for self-education and improvement of business skills, while clearly demonstrating the ability to negotiate and solve problems through negotiations. This makes women highly valuable members of their own or shared family businesses.