Abstract
M.Com. (Business Management)
Family businesses all over the world have been widely acknowledged as important drivers of economic development, with approximately 80% of the global gross domestics product (GDP) attributed to these institutions (Poza & Daugherty, 2013). However, in recent times the longevity and sustainability of these businesses have been threatened by a lack of successors (Gomba, 2014). According to Williams, Zorn, Crook and Combs (2013), almost 66% of family businesses fail to transition successfully to the second generation, and a mere 15% survive into the third generation. This transition fails due to, amongst others factors, the readiness and willingness of the founder to let go, readiness and willingness of the successor to take over, and a lack of commitment from the successor (Chrisman, Chua & Sharma, 1998; Lam, 2011; Miller, 2014; Venter, Boshoff & Maas, 2005). Against this background, the present study explored the relationship between entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) and entrepreneurial intentions (EI), and the commitment of the next-generation leaders (NGLs) employed in family-owned agribusinesses. As part of the secondary objectives, the study tested whether the demographic factor (employment position) influenced the commitment of NGLs, whilst also validating whether the data fit the proposed model of NGLs’ commitment. These objectives were in response to scant research on family businesses and the call for more studies on family-owned businesses, especially in developing economies (Lam, 2011; Van der Merwe, 2010).
Research design and methodology
Through a cross-sectional research survey, a nomothetic positivistic research design was adopted. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to 450 potential respondents identified as NGLs. Only 125 questionnaires were usable for analysis, hence the call for more studies with larger samples. Owing to the quantitative nature of the study, multi-stage probability sampling was employed to randomly select the respondents from three...