Leadership Succession Planning Contributions Towards Family-Owned Business Performance and Sustainability in South Africa

Abstract

Worldwide, family business has gained prominence as one of the critical vehicles for creating employment and hence made a contribution in the efforts to eradicate poverty. However, most family business lack of leadership succession planning, which eventually lead to low levels of performance and lack of sustainability. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between leadership succession planning, performance, and sustainability of family businesses. A qualitative methodological approach was utilized where participants were selected using purposive and snowball sampling methods. Semi-structured interviews were used in collecting data and the collected data was analyzed thematically. The study found that leadership succession planning is linked to sustainability and general performance within family businesses. Conversely, it was found that levels of sustainability and failure of family businesses are related to their inability to come up with effective succession leadership planning. This finding confirms the vital role that leadership succession planning plays in enhancing the performance and sustainability of a family business.