The Influence of Family Long Term Strategic Commitment on the Sustainability of Family Owned Enterprises in the Western Highlands of Cameroon

This study seeks to examine the influence of family long term strategic commitment on the sustainability of family owned enterprises in the Western Highlands of Cameroon. The study made use of primary data obtained through self-administered structured questionnaires. A total of 313 questionnaires were administered to the founders and managers of the family owned enterprises in the Western Highlands of Cameroon. Data collected was entered into SPSS. The study used the Generalised Linear Model (GLM) technique to test the hypotheses. Particular focus was on organisational culture, the involvement of family members and entrepreneurial risk-taking as determinants of the sustainability of family owned enterprises. The results from the GLM regression showed a negative coefficient in the overall sample which indicated that an increase in family long-term strategic commitment predicted a decrease in sustainability of family-owned enterprises. Specifically, organisational culture has a positive coefficient of 0.0862 significant at 10%; the involvement of family members has a negative coefficient of -0.0642 and significant at 10%; and entrepreneurial risk taking has a negative coefficient of -0.00155. This meant that there was a no effect of family long term strategic commitment on the sustainability of family owned enterprises in the Western Highlands of Cameroon; since only organisational culture positively influenced sustainability in the Western Highlands of Cameroon. This study was limited to the Western Highlands of Cameroon by not considering the other ecological zones (Southern rain forests, Central savannah and Northern arid region) of Cameroon. From the findings, the study recommended that founders and managers should engage in calculative risk taking and specify the degree of involvement of family members that could not jeopardised the continuity of the business. The research questions and methods used in this research are new in the aspect of investigating the influence of family long term strategic commitment on the sustainability of family owned enterprises in the Western Highlands of Cameroon.