Effect of Leadership Succession Management Crises on Family-Owned Businesses in Benin-City, Edo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Despite the relevance of family-owned businesses (FOB) to economic development, leadership succession management crises could constitute bane to their multigenerational continuity globally and Nigeria inclusive. The study therefore, determined the factors that affect leadership succession management and their implications to business continuity. The study adopted the survey research design and a 35-item structured questionnaire was used to elicit information from respondents. The questionnaire was validated and tested to be reliable with 0.79 as the reliability co-efficient value. The mean and standard deviation answered the
research questions and determined the respondents’ homogeneity respectively while the hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed among others that family background/cultural traits, personality traits, professionalism/educational background could affect leadership succession choice. It was recommended among others that the potential candidate’s interest should be highly considered and that succession plan should be regarded as a potent tool for effective leadership succession management in other to ensure smooth transition process devoid of acrimony, upheaval and conflict to guarantee FOB multigenerational continuity.