Role of Spouse Support in the Success of Family Owned Businesses in Meru County

Abstract

One positive characteristic of family ventures is their short chain in decision making, which anchors fast execution of goals. A family company system is particularly arranged; all undertakings must be done reliably. Family company business visionaries trust that with a solid family and legitimate management of strategies they can guarantee accomplishment of the goals. Spousal help is imperative in maintaining the business to progress. Spousal support incorporates such parts as good and calculative responsibility, transference of assets crosswise over family/business limits amid chaotic occasions in the firm, spousal view of business visionary's business adequacy, partaking in firm decision making, and additionally helping with speaking to the family enterprise in the network. However, studies done on matters of family business are lacking, that particularly feature the commitments of life partners in the family businesses. This study sought to establish role of spouse support in the success of family owned businesses in Meru County. The study was guided by resource-based theory and sustainable family business theory. The study adopted descriptive cross-sectional survey. The population was made up of the 2083 small and medium family businesses within Meru County operated in the county for at least 4 years classified as, 513 farming businesses, 189 manufacturing businesses, 343 service businesses (hotel, clubs among others) and 1042 retail and wholesale businesses. The sample size comprised of 335 respondents. The study collected primary data. A pilot study to ascertain the validity of the questions asked and the reliability of the collected data was conducted. The analysis of quantitative data was through descriptive statistic. Further, the study used regression analysis to establish the relationship between the dependent variable and the independent variables. The finding of this study showed that provision of physical capital support, social capital support and management support by spouse influenced the success of family owned businesses in Meru County. The study recommends policy formulation to ensure spouses roles and responsibility does not overlap. The study further recommends that spouses should work as a team to achieve the business goals and objectives. Good communications is recommended as an integral part of business growth