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When founding entrepreneurs leave: the problem of succession in small firms in Nigeria, 1971–1980

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 August 2003

Monibo A. Sam
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Albright College, Reading, Pennsylvania, USA.

Abstract

Like its counterparts elsewhere, the small business sector of the Nigerian economy is extremely volatile. A corollary of this volatility is the dearth of long-established firms. One issue that can help to account for the scarcity of long-established firms and also contribute to our understanding of the sector's volatility is succession, the ease with which ownership changes from one hand to another. This paper explores the issue of succession in privately incorporated small firms in south-eastern Nigeria. The finding that nearly half of the closures are attributable to the succession problem has implications for research on the small business sector, and on the development expectations of the sector.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2003 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

The research for this paper was funded in part by a research assistantship by the Department of Sociology, University of Connecticut, and by a dissertation grant by the National Science Foundation.