Global Journal of Management and Business Research, A: Administration and Management, Volume 22 Issue 5

First, activities related to succession planning are part of the succession process. Second, succession planning is believed to increase the probability of a successful succession (Sharma, Chrisman, and Chua, (1997). Previous studies tend either to treat succession planning as a one-dimensional process or to combine its dimensions into one overall measure. However, as noted above, although that approach adds to knowledge, this paper follows Dyck, Mauws, Starke, and Mischke (2002) by treating succession planning as a long-term process involving multiple activities and examines the activities separately. Sharma, Chrisman, and Chua, (1997) in the previous work of Christensen 1953suggested that succession planning as a process should include identifying the pool of potential successors, designating the successor, and notifying the successor designate and other management leaders of the decision made. To this set of activities, Lansberg (1988) and Ward (1987) added the need to train the successors and to formulate a vision of the company after succession, whereas Sharma, Chrisman, and Gersick, (2012) add defining a role for the retiring CEO. To summarize, the literature suggests that the succession-planning process consists of the following discrete components, which include the following among others- selecting and training a successor, developing a vision or strategic plan for the company after succession, defining the role of the departing incumbent and communicating the decision to key stakeholders. Succession planning should be part of an ongoing process that looks at what leadership and management skills are necessary for the ongoing success of the company as it strives to meet its vision. Just as one develops board members and the skills of the workforce, the leadership needs of the organization should be regularly assessed and plans made for development. In the same way, that fire plants prepare a company for potential future emergency, a good succession plan should consider what would happen if the CEO were suddenly unable to carry out his or her job. A comprehensive succession plan should consider declining abilities and impending retirement as well as accidental death according to Williams, and Ahmed, (2018). V. M ethodology A survey design was adopted for this paper. The adoption of this design was influenced by the research problem and its corresponding research questions. The population of the study is given as 11,663 Small and medium enterprises relying on data from the 2013 Survey report on SMEs in Nigeria conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in collaboration with SMEDAN, and these firms are categorized as family businesses. The selected local governments are Apapa, Ibeju-Lekki, Ikeja, Lagos-Island and Lagos Mainland. The choice of Lagos as the location for the study is informed by the economic and strategic importance of the state to Nigeria. The sampling size for this study was determined using the formula for sample determination for a finite population as expressed by Yamane (1967). In order to determine a representative sample from the general population, Yamane (1967) sampling formula was adopted and used. The sample size of 387 was arrived at from the population. According to (Samani, 2016) there is a need to give allowance of 30% non-response rate from the sample size. Therefore, the non-response rate allowance of 30% (116) was added, which brings the total sample size for the study is 503 SMEs operating in Lagos State. Validity of the research instrument was carried out to ensure that the correct variables measured what it supposed to measure. Furthermore, the reliability test was carried out on the research instrument; this test is an indicator of internal consistency. The internal consistency test revealed that the overall Cronbach coefficient for the entire questionnaire was ( α ) = 0.850 (with the lowest being 0.775; and the highest 0.851). The result of the pre-test carried out by the researcher showed that the scales were considered reliable because the Cronbach’s alpha was greater than 0.84 recommended by Nunnally (1970), one can comfortably conclude that the instrument is highly reliable, Gefen, Straub, and Boudreau, (2000)since it is greater than 0.70 the acceptable level. VI. D ata A nalysis, R esults and D iscussion of F indings The number of questionnaires administered to all the respondents, was 503. After coding and checking for accuracy in the data, 469 questionnaires were found useful for the study. This gave a response rate of 93.2% and 34 questionnaires were not received which represented 6.8% of the total questionnaires distributed. In order to test the hypothesis, standard multiple regression analysis of ordinary least square method (OLS) was used. The data employed was obtained by summing responses of all items for succession planning and family business continuity. In the analysis, succession planning is independent variable and family business continuity is dependent variable. The results of the regression are presented in Table 1.1, 1.2, 1.3. Succession Planning and Family Business Continuity: Perspectives from Lagos State, Nigeria 34 Global Journal of Management and Business Research Volume XXII Issue V Version I Year 2022 ( ) A © 2022 Global Journals