IMPACT OF ENTREPRENEURIAL ORIENTATION ON FAMILY HOSPITALITY BUSINESS PERFORMANCE IN NORTH-CENTRAL NIGERIA.

Abstract

Family firms constitute the dominant and oldest form of business organizations, and are of crucial importance to the nations’ economies. However, radical changes in servicing technology and philosophy, combined with intensified global competition and changing customers’ demands have made many traditional hospitality systems obsolete. Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) is widely considered to offer an elixir on firm-level entrepreneurship effectiveness. Hence, this study examined the predictive effects of entrepreneurial orientation on family hospitality business performance in North Central geopolitical region. Seven main hypotheses were developed and tested at P<.05 level of significance. Previous related studies were reviewed to position the work in existing literature conceptually, theoretically and empirically. The study also adopted business system of the 3-dimension model of family business development, as it gives survival niche in the marketplace by utilizing an intense energy that other firms cannot match. A model was developed and was grounded in the theoretical lens of Resources-Based View (RBV) to explain the mediating effects of familiness and hotel classification, and also to predict EO influence on family hospitality business performance. A quantitative approach was employed for the study with survey method. The target population was obtained from the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) archive which comprised of 2388 family hotels in the North-central states of Niger, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Plateau, Benue and FCT. The unit of analysis was at the firm level. A stratified sampling technique was adopted and Taro Yamane sample determination method was used to arrive at 453 samples with which questionnaires were served. A firm-level five points likert-scale questionnaire which was subjected to validity and reliability testsat 95% confidence level with a cronchbach alpha coefficient of 0.85. The questionnaire was administered through web survey and complemented with drop and pick method. Research assistants for each state and FCT were trained to administer the instruments. The data generated from 410 usable responses and questionnaires of owner-managers of the hospitality firms were analyzed with descriptive and inferential statistics. PLS-SEM 3 software was employed to test the hypothesized relationships. The study found that, of the seven hypothesized relationships for the research, four out of the five main hypotheses were not statistically significant while innovativeness was the only significant relationship with family hospitality business performance. The two hypothesized mediating effects of familiness and hotel classification were found not to have significant effect. Firm size and age were controlled in the measurement and did not yield significant influence on the study. The study concluded that firms must not wholly adopt the five dimensions of EO to have a competitive edge but the dimension that is unique to the business environment. Thus, the study recommended that hospitality firms should concentrate on innovativeness which seems to lead to higher firm performance rather than adopting the five dimensions of EO. Lastly, the study made several theoretical and empirical contributions to the family business, hospitality industry and entrepreneurial orientation. There are series of implications made for hoteliers, customers, academia, researchers, entrepreneurs and policy makers. Finally, suggestions were made for further studies.