- Title
- Parental influences on the next generation’s intention to join the family business
- Creator
- Saunders, Shelley Beryl
- Subject
- Family-owned business enterprises -- Succession
- Subject
- Family-owned business enterprises -- Management Family corporations -- Management Success in business
- Date Issued
- 2018
- Date
- 2018
- Type
- Thesis
- Type
- Doctoral
- Type
- DCom
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10948/35072
- Identifier
- vital:33612
- Description
- Family businesses play an important role worldwide and in South Africa, in terms of their economic contribution and their ability to create jobs. However, the unwillingness of next generation family members (NGFMs) to join the family business seriously jeopardises its long-term survival. This is a matter of great concern for family business owners who in general have a strong desire to pass on the business to the next generation and to preserve the family’s legacy. Of the many factors relating to a person’s choice of career, parents are by far the most influential. Against this background, the purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of the influence that parents have on the NGFM’s intentions to join the family business as well as the factors that moderate this influence. Establishing how parents influence an NGFM’s intention to join the family business makes an important theoretical contribution to family business, succession and entrepreneurial literatures, and holds both practical and theoretical relevance. The literature review provided an overview of the field of family business and discussed the nature of these businesses. Several frameworks, theories and perspectives relating to family businesses were elaborated on. The important role that family businesses play in the economies of countries and the unique challenges they face were highlighted. One of the most important challenges facing family businesses is that of transgenerational succession and the willingness of the next generation to make the family business their career choice. Several behaviour and career choice theories were discussed, particularly in relation to the South African context, and a summary of all the factors influencing career choice in terms of these theories was presented. Several parental influences on career choice were identified and examined in detail, namely Parent–child relationship, Parents’ job characteristics, Parental financial security, Parental job satisfaction, Parental identification, Parental expectations, Parental support and Parental style. Additionally, the influence of each parental influences on NGFMs, in a family business context, was highlighted. Based on anecdotal and empirical support, these parental influences were hypothesised as influencing the dependent variable in this study, namely Intention to join the family business. Based on the social cognitive career theory, Self-efficacy and Outcome expectations were hypothesised as moderating the aforementioned relationships. This study adopted a positivist research paradigm and a quantitative methodological approach that was deductive in nature. The methodology adopted to collect primary data was a cross-sectional analytical survey. A structured questionnaire was distributed to respondents who were identified by means of judgemental sampling and 453 completed questionnaires were subjected to statistical analysis. The validity of the scales measuring the dependent, moderating and independent variables was assessed by means of factor analysis and the reliability thereof by calculating Cronbach’s alpha coefficients. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were calculated. Multiple regression analysis (MRA) was used to assess the hypothesised relationships. The findings show that only one third of the respondents agreed that they had Intentions to join the family business. Furthermore, the results of the MRA reported significant and positive relationships between the independent variables Parental expectations, Perceived parental outcomes, and Parental identification, and the dependent variable Intention to join the family business. The results of the moderated regression analysis revealed that Self-efficacy and Outcome expectations do not moderate the relationships between all the parental influences investigated and Intention to join the family business as hypothesised. However, a significant positive relationship at the ten per cent confidence level was reported between the interaction effect, Self-efficacy x Perceived parental outcomes, and Intention to join the family business. A significant positive relationship at the five per cent confidence level was also reported between the interaction effect Outcome expectations x Parental identification, and Intention to join the family business. Based on the findings of this study, numerous recommendations were made. This study makes a contribution to both theory and practice. In terms of theory, the results have highlighted the applicability of both the theory of planned behaviour and the social cognitive career theory in explaining an NGFM’s Intention to join the family business. In addition, the applicability of these theories in the family business context has been confirmed. This study also contributes to the family business literature in that it provides new insights into how parents influence one of family businesses’ biggest challenges, namely their children not wanting to take over the family business. In terms of practice, the findings show that that several of the parental influences investigated do indeed increase the intention of NGFMs to join the family business. It is anticipated that these findings will encourage parents who own family businesses to take note of how they influence their children’s decision whether to join them in the family business, and ultimately to contribute to its possible long-term survival and success.
- Format
- xv, 285 leaves
- Format
- Publisher
- Nelson Mandela University
- Publisher
- Faculty of Business and Economic Sciences
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Nelson Mandela University
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | SB Saunders 207011567 Final.pdf | 3 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |