Succession Planning and Family Business Transgenerational Orientation

Family businesses are instrumental to economic growth and development; however, the inability of most family businesses to survive beyond five years, let alone attain a transgenerational status, has remained a source of concern for governments and managers globally. Hence, it is crucial to address fundamental issues that would account for their long-term survival, especially in developing economies where family businesses serve as a functional source of employment and means of livelihood. Therefore, this study assessed the effect of succession planning on the transgenerational orientation (TGO) of family businesses and the moderating role of first-born primogeniture rights in the relationship between succession planning and the TGO of family businesses in Nigeria. The study sampled 268 family-owned Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), and data analysis was conducted using Hayes PROCESS Macros simultaneous entry analysis on SPSS v27. The study found that succession planning significantly affects the TGO of family businesses, and the presence of first-born primogeniture rights significantly moderates the relationship between succession planning and the TGO of family businesses in Nigeria. The study provides a new perspective on family businesses by accounting for complementary variables that emphasize the role of succession planning in achieving TGO. As a contribution to knowledge, the study validates systems theory. Received: 6 October 2024 | Revised: 17 February 2025 | Accepted: 19 March 2025 Conflicts of Interest The author declares that he has no conflicts of interest to this work. Data Availability Statement Data are available on request from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. Author Contribution Statement Ejikeme Emmanuel Isichei: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation, Investigation, Resources, Data curation, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing, Visualization, Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition.