Succession Planning in Family Businesses Owned by Business Students

in Selected Schools of Cebu City

Introduction
Rationale

Problem Statement
The purpose of the study is to determine the succession planning in place for family
businesses owned by business students of selected schools in Cebu City.
Furthermore, it aims to answer the following to wit:
a. What is the profile of family businesses in terms of:
a.1. Involvement of family members in the business
a.1.1. Ownership
a.1.2. Management
a.1.3. Decision-making
a.1.4. Working/Helping out in the business
a.2. Succession Practices
a.2.1. Willingness to let one or more family members take over and
operate the business
a.2.2. Likelihood that one or more of the family members will actually
take over and operate the business.
a.2.3. Plans to transfer ownership of the business to one or more family
members
a.2.4. Attitude towards consulting a third party on issues regarding
succession planning.
a.3. Mode of acquisition of the business
a.4. Belief regarding the impact of family member/s involvement on business
success
a.5. Classification of the business
a.5.1 Size based on number of employ
a.6. Other Information regarding the operation of the family business:
a.6.1. Base of operation
a.6.2. Years of operation

a.7. Demographic Profile of the Owner of the family business in terms of:
a.7.1. Age
a.7.2. Gender
a.7.3. Highest Educational Attainment
b. What are the attitudes of the business students and current business owners
toward succession planning of the family business;
c. What recommendations can be proposed to promote successful succession
planning practices of these family businesses;
d. What are the study results implications on the role of USC School of Business
and Economics to the business community?

Significance of the Study

The results of the study will be beneficial to the following, to wit:
Family Business Owners This study would primarily benefit the entrepreneurs as
the results would give them the idea of the existence of fellow business owners
succession planning practices if there are any. Business Administration Students
As the prospective successors of the business, they will be able to identify the gap
experienced by small businesses toward business continuity. This information may
help them equip their own family businesses from going down the drain.
Consumers They will benefit from the study as the outcome of the businesses they
patronize affect them greatly.
Department of Trade and Industry The study results will provide data for this
agency on how business owners, particularly small businesses, plan to continue
their respective businesses and may be a basis for interventions or action plans that
the agency may carry out to support these businesses.
Business Schools These institutions play a critical role in molding individuals to
create sustainable businesses and strengthen existing ones through programs that
they offer. Through the results of this research, business schools will have
information on what areas in their programs they can improve on especially in the
field of succession planning and may use the results to establish centers for family
businesses that would help these businesses better formulate and implement their
succession plans.
Future Entrepreneurs The data to be obtained from this research will somehow
give a picture to future business owners the importance of having a succession
planning in place when starting out a business and learn on what they can do on
their individual businesses to last long.

Future Researchers The information that will be produced in this study may be a
springboard to future studies that will enhance the body of knowledge on
succession planning

Hypothesis
Research Hypothesis
Statistical Hypothesis

Research Methodology
Research Environment
The study will be conducted in the University of San Carlos- Downtown
Campus (USC) located at Sanciangko St. Cebu City, Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de
Cebu (SHS-ADC) situated at H. Abellana Street, Brgy. Canduman Mandaue City and
St. Theresas College (STC) located at Juana Osmea St, Cebu City, Cebu.
Research Respondents
The target population of the study will be the business administration and
master in business administration students of USC, SHS-ADC, and STC and family
member-owners of their family businesses. From the population, the researcher will
select not less than 100 respondents to participate in the study
The researcher will use non-probability judgmental/purposive sampling using
predetermined selection criteria. Faculty members of the aforementioned schools
will be tapped to assist in the determination of the respondents. The selection
criteria includes, but not limited to the following: family-owned business, family
business should be operational at least 3 years, family member owns and manages
the business, and are willing to participate in the study.
Research Instrument
The researcher will prepare a 2 page survey questionnaire to be distributed to
the respondents and their respective family members. All the questions asked are
structured questions, and are specifically of the fixed-alternative type. Respondents
were presented with a formal questionnaire, within which predetermined set of
responses are provided after each item.
The questionnaire will be composed of two major parts. The first part includes
identification information (name of student who turned in the questionnaire, his/her
relationship to the respondent, name of the respondent, business name and
address) contact information (telephone/fax number, e-mail address/web site), and
business information. Business information includes inquiries regarding involvement
of family members in the family business, and succession practices. The second

part of the questionnaire focuses on the demographics of the family business itself
(classification of business, financial performance, other information) and the owner
of the family business (highest educational attainment, age, gender).
Research Procedures
Gathering of Data
The researcher will tap the faculty members of the schools to help determine
the respondents of the study. Pretested survey questionnaires will be distributed to
the respondents and in turn will hand over the same to their respective family
member/owner of the family business.
All the questionnaires turned in by the students will be examined and
screened based on some criteria prior to the encoding of the responses. The criteria
used in qualifying the questionnaires are the following:
1. The questionnaire should be physically complete.
2. The respondent should be a relative of student who turned in the
questionnaire.
3. All items (with the exemption of contact information) in the questionnaire
should have been filled-up by the respondent.
4. Responses to all the questions should be coherent and consistent.
In case one or more of the criteria for screening questionnaires will not be
met, a review or editing of questionnaires will be done to increase accuracy and
precision of the output of the survey by reaching out to the respondent/s. In the
event that the respondent did not provide any contact information or if provided but
for some reason refused to provide additional information or cannot be reached, the
incomplete questionnaire will be discarded. Data will then be tabulated, collated,
and organized in preparation for analysis and interpretation of findings.
Treatment of Data
All identification information obtained from the survey was encoded in a
database. To compare the attitudes of attitudes of the business students and
current business owners toward succession planning of the family business, a t-test
will be used.