TITLE:
Evaluating the Influence of Succession Planning on the Growth of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Ahafo, Bono and Bono East Regions of Ghana
AUTHORS:
Vida Korang, Moses Kwaku Golly, Opoku Mustapha Osman
KEYWORDS:
Succession Planning, SMEs, Organizational Growth
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Business and Management,
Vol.9 No.6,
November
30,
2021
ABSTRACT: Small and medium businesses (SMEs) are critical to any country’s national
economic development. On the other hand, SMEs confront a considerable
difficulty in succession planning: the lack of or inefficiency/ineffectiveness
of succession planning. As a result, this quantitative correlational study
aimed to evaluate the influence of succession planning on the growth of Small
and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the Brong Ahafo region of Ghana. To reach the
research goal, the study used a quantitative correlational research design.
Data were collected from 140 respondents involved in SMEs from nine districts and
municipal assemblies from the Bono, Ahafo and Bono East Regions of Ghana. The results revealed that most of the
respondents, 113 (80.64%), agreed that employees or possible successors
might leave the organisation for a better offer and 106 (75.71%) respondents
indicated that owners of SMEs do not think about succession plan until there is
a crisis. The results also showed that succession plan explains nearly (50%);
thus, half the chances of survival of an SME in the Bono, Ahafo and Bono East regions are
dependent on succession planning. There was
a significant difference in succession plan practices among the
different year groups of SMEs. The result also demonstrated no statistically
significant difference in the service and manufacturing industries’ succession
planning practices among the SMEs surveyed. It is recommended that business
owners, policymakers and the state should support SMEs in succession planning
development. If possible, succession planning should be part of the school
curriculum and entrepreneurship training programmes in schools and business
institutes. This will build the capacity of prospective business owners and
create awareness about the effects of succession planning on the growth of
organisations.