Succession-Related Mortality Among Small Firms in Nigeria

Abstract

A strong consensus exists among analysts of the small business sector of developing economies that this sector is characterised by phenomenally high business mortality. Extant efforts at explaining this volatility have focused pre-eminently on economic factors. Such preoccupation with economic factors in the analysis of the instability of the small business sector has had a crippling effect on the ability of analysts to explore other potential but non-economic sources of instability. In this article, the authors venture into the relatively uncharted terrain of succession analysis using longitudinal data on small firms in Nigeria. They found that most of the closures were succession-related, occurring in the mature age of firms. These firms exhibited longevity uncharacteristic of firms in this sector: the instability that typifies the sector may coexist with extraordinary survival capacity. These are preliminary findings that, if sustained by subsequent studies, portend major implications for research and policy in this sector.