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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Leadership Succession: A Recalcitrant Problem in the Indigenisation of African Economies
Author:Maphosa, FranceISNI
Year:1999
Periodical:Zambezia (ISSN 0379-0622)
Volume:26
Issue:2
Pages:169-182
Language:English
Notes:biblio. refs.
Geographic term:Africa
Subjects:entrepreneurs
small enterprises
business
Africanization
Economics and Trade
Economics, Commerce
Entrepreneurship
Business management
Executive succession
leadership
External link:https://journals.co.za/doi/abs/10.10520/AJA03790622_42
Abstract:One of the greatest challenges facing indigenous African businesses today is the structural problem of succession, that is, uncertainty about the future of the enterprise beyond the death or retirement of the founder of the business. This article is based on findings from a study of ten indigenous small to medium-scale businesses in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, which were studied over a period of two years using interviews and observation. The selection included two businesses in the clothing manufacturing trade, one in business consultancy, one training institute, one combined supermarket and bottle store, one general dealer shop, one bookbinding and paper trade business, one hairdressing saloon, one spray-painting and panel-beating venture, and one construction business. The businesses are owner-managed, first-generation ventures, all of them formed after independence. The author identifies a number of impediments to successful business leadership succession lack of joint ownership, or the unwillingness to form partnerships or to establish corporate forms of business with either relatives or non-relatives; the age of the founder; the choice of spouses and children as would-be successor; and traditional practices associated with polygamy and inheritance. Continuity of business enterprises beyond the founder is only possible if there is a succession plan. Personalized leadership in many small-scale enterprises makes planning for succession difficult. African entrepreneurial development should, therefore, focus on entrepreneurship approaches that give primacy to the collectivity rather than the individual. Bibliogr., sum.
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