English Abstract
Abstract :
Family businesses are the prevailing type of business across the globe. However, the awareness surrounding family business sustainability in the Kingdom of Bahrain, in addition to an understanding of its determining factors, is lacking. The purpose of this study is to identify and analyze the critical success factors that contribute to the sustainability of family owned businesses in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The factors studied are family governance, tradition and culture, strategic planning, leadership, succession planning and innovation and knowledge. The existing literature lacks research that jointly examines the impact of these factors on family business sustainability and lacks research on family business sustainability in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The methodology involved a mixed method research design. Quantitative data was gathered through a questionnaire distributed to family businesses in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The questionnaire generated 200 responses (53.5% response rate) and the data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics through IBM SPSS. Qualitative data was gathered through an unstructured interview with seven prominent figures at family businesses in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Qualitative data was analyzed using content analysis. A regression and correlation analysis of the findings revealed a statistically significant positive relationship between the factors and the perception of family business sustainability in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Content analysis of the findings also indicated that family businesses had minimal awareness of the importance of family governance, strategic planning and succession planning on sustainability. It was concluded that greater awareness must be built around family business sustainability and the importance of its determinants. Recommendations on establishing mechanisms relating to the factors studied are presented with some implementation directives. The limitation of this research is that only studies family businesses in the Kingdom of Bahrain from a sustainability perception perspective, given the difficulty in quantifying sustainability. Future research can be directed towards the Gulf Cooperation Council, Middle East and North Africa, quantifying sustainability, as well as longitudinal and historical analyses of family business sustainability. The contribution of this research is the measurable construct of sustainability perception, quantitative assessment of the studied factors and the statistical evidence corroborating the effect of these factors.
