- Title
- The moderating influence of socioemotional wealth on the innovation choices and outputs of South African family businesses
- Creator
- Ndang, Akah William
- Subject
- Socioemotional wealth,
- Subject
- Family-owned business enterprises
- Date Issued
- 2023-04
- Date
- 2023-04
- Type
- Master's theses
- Type
- text
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10948/62216
- Identifier
- vital:72012
- Description
- The global impact of family businesses is increasing in a significant manner. The importance of family businesses has been recognised by academic institutions through the establishment of family business research centres and academic programmes for family businesses, as well as practitioner-oriented journals in family business studies. In most developed and developing market economies, family businesses have been projected as one of the primary forms of private enterprise that play an important role in both national and global economies, including South Africa. In other words, in the global innovation context, family businesses are considered to be the backbone of economic development. Given the importance of innovation to family businesses in contributing to economic growth and sustainability across generations, as well as the limited research that has been conducted on South African family businesses and innovation, the primary objective of this research was to investigate the relationship of selected drivers of innovation and Innovation outputs in South-African family businesses, as well as how the family, through its Socioemotional wealth, moderates the relationships between the drivers of innovation and Innovation outputs. This study uses the socioemotional wealth (SEW) and the resource-based theory (RBV) as the basis of its theoretical orientation. The following drivers of innovation were identified during the literature review (independent variable), namely: Financial capital, Human capital and leadership, Social capital, Learning orientation, Entrepreneurial orientation, Market orientation, Organisational culture, and Knowledge management as having an impact on Innovation outputs (dependent variable). In addition, Socioemotional wealth (SEW) was hypothesised as having a moderating influence on the relationships between the drivers of innovation and Innovation ouptuts. Four demographic variables (Size of the business, Age of the business, Generation of the family and Industry of operation) were identified as having a potential influence on the hypothesised relationships. Each of the constructs were clearly defined and then operationalised. Operationalisation was done by using reliable and valid items sourced from tested vii measuring instruments used in previous studies, as well as a number of self-generated items based on secondary sources. A structured questionnaire was made available online to respondents identified by means of the convenience snowball sampling technique, and data was collected from 331 family businesses in South Africa. The usable questionnaires were subjected to various data analyses techniques. Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFA) were performed on each factor that confirms the factor structures by using various goodness-of-fit indices. Subsequent to the CFAs, the validity and reliability of the measuring instrument was assessed. As a result of these analyses, three new independent variables emerged as drivers of Innovation outputs in South African family businesses, namely: Funding of research and innovation, Financial, human and social capital resources, and Shared business vision, resources information and knowledge. In addition the SEW construct revealed two dimensions as dependant variables, namely: Family influence, control and commitment and Business reputation and commitment. The reliability of the measuring instrument was evaluated using Cronbach’s alpha coefficients, while the assessment of validity involved calculations of the average variance extracted (AVE) estimates and squared correlations between constructs. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was the main statistical procedure used to test the significance of the relationships hypothesised between the various independent, moderating and dependent variables. The main finding of the study reveals that there is a significant positive relationship between Financial, human and social capital resources, and Innovation outputs. There is also a significant positive relationship between Shared business vision, resources, information and knowledge and Innovation outputs. Furthermore, Family influence, control and commitment positively moderates the relationship between Shared business vision, resources, information and knowledge and Innovation outputs. while Business reputation and succession positively moderates the relationship between Financial, human, social capital resources, and Innovation outputs. Finally, Business reputation and succession positively moderates the relationship between Shared business vision, resources, information and knowledge viii and Innovation outputs. Concerning the selected demographic variables, this study found that Age of the business has a significant influence on Innovation outputs. This study makes several theoretical and practical contributions. This study is the first of its kind that investigates the relationship between the drivers of innovation and Innovation outputs of South African family businesses. Second, this study is the first to investigate how the family, through its Socioemotional wealth, moderates the relationships between the drivers of innovation and Innovation outputs of South African family businesses. Having a better understanding of how and when the family system impacts the innovation decisions in the family business is important because it helps researchers understand the differences between family businesses (i.e. family firm heterogeneity) and non-family businesses. Third, the findings indicated that the adaptation of the SEW and RBV theories was accurate in understanding how the family, through its socioemotional wealth, influences innovation decisions. Fourth, concerning the selected demographic variables, this study found that Age of the business has a significant influence on Innovation outputs. This finding is another valuable contribution to the literature on innovation, given the inconsistent and sometimes inconclusive findings concerning the relationship between age of the business and innovation activities. The study's final theoretical contribution is the development of a measurement tool that accurately assesses the drivers of innovation and innovation outputs and the influence of the five dimensions of socioemotional wealth. Other family business researchers, business mentors and or family business owners themselves can use this measurement tool to assess and monitor factors that have an impact on innovation activities inside their businesses. Practically, this study makes several suggestions on how family business owners and managers could improve the Innovation outputs of their businesses and become aware of how the family could influence the innovation choices and decisions made in the business.
- Description
- Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Faculty of Business and Economic Sciences, 2023
- Format
- computer
- Format
- online resource
- Format
- application/pdf
- Format
- 1 online resource (xxiv, 204 pages)
- Format
- Publisher
- Nelson Mandela University
- Publisher
- Faculty of Faculty of Business and Economic Sciences
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Nelson Mandela University
- Rights
- All Rights Reserved
- Rights
- Open Access
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