Transgenerational tourism entrepreneurship in Langkawi Island, Malaysia

Abstract

Transgenerational entrepreneurship is an evolution of the family business theory, but unfortunately, the theory has not been fully explored within the context of tourism planning. In traditional family business research, transgenerational entrepreneurship focuses on the family as the unit of analysis rather than the business entity. Furthermore, this shift in perspective has opened a new frontier for family business research within the context of tourism development. Interestingly, the family business is considered a nepotism-based economic model, but the model has managed to succeed and survive from the feudal economy to the modern economy of today. Entrepreneurship can be passed down through family generations, although the business could change in terms of ownership or product. Moreover, although the family is involved in an idiosyncratic tourism business, surprisingly, it can sustain and even emerge as a local tourism brand. Hence, from the perspective of tourism development, this research examined the role and characteristics on the success factors of transgenerational entrepreneurship. It also looks into the influence of these factors on the development of tourism and the economy in particular through sustaining family entrepreneurship and new venture creations. Thus, the research objective is to identify transgenerational entrepreneurship characteristics, family entrepreneurial behaviour and influence on the new venture creation activity in tourism business. The research adopted a qualitative approach, in which the snowball technique was used to identify 18 family businesses with at least two generations of entrepreneurs in Langkawi Island. An in-depth interview was conducted and thematic analysis was performed. The result discovered nine themes which are namely, survivability mindset, smallness, family business capital, family new ventures, family decision-making management, family cumulative entrepreneurship experience, entrepreneurship moulding, family values and culture, and goal achievement. It was found that the business is the main family entrepreneurship resource rather than an entity. Besides, new venture creation is the primary family entrepreneurship activity for the new generation and alternatively as an exit policy. Slightly different from conventional family business management, which is based on dictatorship, the families in this case study practised democratic monarchy where the owner would act as the final stamp of approval for any decisions. Another finding was that altruism influences of the family, thus proving that family businesses indeed have a nepotistic culture. Moreover, the repeated succession process eventually becomes a family entrepreneurship legacy because the successor has a sense of responsibility and is tacit in all knowledge transfers. Besides that, trust goes beyond the family sphere to involve suppliers, customers, and financial institutions. Therefore, the transgenerational tourism entrepreneurship model proposed in this study fills in the gap in transgenerational entrepreneurship and planning development models that have yet to be developed.