- Title
- A systematic literature review of African family business research
- Creator
- Billings, Cassidy
- Subject
- Family-owned business enterprises -- Management
- Subject
- Small business -- South Africa
- Subject
- Entrepreneurship -- South Africa
- Date Issued
- 2025-04
- Date
- 2025-04
- Type
- Master's theses
- Type
- text
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10948/71985
- Identifier
- vital:79163
- Description
- Family businesses are a dominant force in the global economy, making up the majority of businesses worldwide and contributing significantly to employment and economic output. These businesses play a crucial role in both developed and emerging economies and as such, have garnered much interest amongst scholars to research family businesses. Despite the growing recognition of family businesses’ importance and increase in family business research globally, research on family businesses in Africa remains limited and underexplored, with no formalised review conducted on all African family business research to date. This lack within African family business research presents a gap in the literature, which this study seeks to address. The primary objective of this study is thus to undertake a systematic literature review of African family business research to summarise and build on the existing body of knowledge and to identify avenues for future research. The review involved searching for relevant articles in the Web of Science and Scopus databases, yielding a total of 107 articles that met this study’s inclusion criteria. The analysis was conducted in two phases: a descriptive analysis, which profiled the publications in terms of geographical focus, publication year, authors and their affiliated institutions, journal impact, citation count as well as, theories and methodologies used. Thereafter, a thematic analysis was undertaken to identify and describe key research topical clusters and themes within African family business research. The articles on which the systematic literature review was conducted were published between 1996 and 2023. South Africa, Ghana and Nigeria emerged as the African countries in which most of the studies published in these articles had been undertaken. The 107 articles included in the review were published in 63 different academic journals and authored by 274 scholars, with fifty-eight percent of these scholars being located in African countries at the time of publication. The thematic analysis revealed that African family business research was categorised into ten topical clusters, namely succession, governance, entrepreneurship, innovation, family dynamics, ownership, leadership and management, internationalisation, corporate social responsibility, socioemotional wealth and performance. Within these topical clusters various research themes and sub-themes were identified. Most articles were however categorised into three topical clusters namely, performance, family dynamics, and ownership, leadership and management. The current study contributed to the growing body of knowledge on African family businesses by conducting a systematic literature review that synthesised existing research in an African family business context. Through consolidating bibliometric data and key topical themes, as well as identifying gaps in current research, this review offered an overview of the state of family business research in Africa. This synthesis also provides a foundation for future research, offering valuable insights for scholars, practitioners, and policymakers seeking to understand the complexities of family businesses in Africa. Most importantly, this study provides a roadmap for future research, helping to bridge the gap in the literature and supporting the sustainable growth of the family business research field in Africa.
- Description
- Thesis (MCom) -- Faculty of Business and Economic Sciences, School of Management Sciences, 2025
- Format
- computer
- Format
- online resource
- Format
- application/pdf
- Format
- 1 online resource (290 pages)
- Format
- Publisher
- Nelson Mandela University
- Publisher
- Faculty of Business and Economic Sciences
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Nelson Mandela University
- Rights
- All Rights Reserved
- Rights
- Open Access
- Hits: 9
- Visitors: 7
- Downloads: 4
Collections
NMU School of Management Sciences
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | BILLINGS, C.pdf | 3 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |