Title: Succession Planning and Organizational Sustainability of fast-food firms in Rivers State, Nigeria
Authors: Professor Edwinah Amah
Opara David
Volume: 10
Issue: 7
Pages: 373-383
Publication Date: 2026/07/28
Abstract:
The study looked at the problem of succession planning at the organizational level of the Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) in Rivers State, Nigeria with a focus on knowledge management as a determinant of survival of SMEs. Market Share and Financial stability were used as measure of Organisational Survival. The study was stimulated due to high failure rates of the SMEs in Nigeria particularly after leadership transition, a major contributing factor of which has been identified to be having poor knowledge management and weaker succession planning of SMEs. The design of the research is a quantitative research design which is descriptive and correlational type of survey. The study population consisted of registered SMEs in five major commercial centers (Harare, Midlands, Mutupuka, Glenburnham and Messina) in Rivers state, and accessible population of 13,320 enterprises. With a non-response rate, samples size of 456 have been calculated by the Taro Yamane formula, from which 388 valid responses have been obtained and analyzed. Data was obtained with the help of a structured questionnaire and analyzed descriptive statistics and Pearson product moment correlation was used in the process of analysis using SPSS version 26 software.The descriptive analysis findings showed that there is moderate to high level of consensus that the organisations have knowledge management practices, market share performance and financial stability is present within the organisations. The correlation analysis revealed a positive correlation between knowledge management practices and market share (r = 0.517, p < 0.05), suggesting a positive impact of knowledge management on market share and customer growth. Moreover, the relationship between knowledge management practices and financial stability of the companies was positively correlated and significant (r = 0.620, p < 0.05) indicating that the better the management of knowledge the better the situation of the companies regarding financial stability, financial liquidity and working efficiency sustainability.The study thus established that Knowledge Management, the enabler of succession planning is a key factor that affects the sustainability of SMEs in Rivers State of the federation as it enhances their market competitiveness and financial strength. The following are the conclusions that emerged from the findings: SME owners/managers have to institutionalize the practices of knowledge capture, knowledge documentation and knowledge sharing within the organization to enable the survival of the organization in the long run; and Knowledge Management, as a subject area, should be incorporated in the strategic and financial decision making processes of SME owners/managers in order to ensure long-term organizational survival.