Lived Experiences in Family Business Among Business Graduates of a Private Higher Educational Institution in Iloilo City, Philippines

Abstract

There has been no academic work dedicated to the discovery of the lived experiences of business graduates from a private higher educational institution in Iloilo City, Philippines in their respective family businesses in terms of their daily lives. This phenomenological study was conducted to explore the lived experiences of business graduates of a private higher educational institution in Iloilo City, Philippines who joined their respective family businesses. Moreover, this study intended to describe the profile of the business graduate participants, family business involvement, family relationships, personal and work-related conflicts, and (4) contributions to their family firms. The qualitative research design was employed for this study, specifically phenomenology. Seven participants through purposive sampling voluntarily joined in this phenomenological study after signing the informed consent form. They came from the class of 2017 to 2019 business graduates. The result showed that the seven (7) participants of this study were all business graduates, who were majority males, aged 23-27 years old from a private educational institution in Iloilo City. They had never enrolled in any graduate school programs. The majority graduated last 2019 with three (3) years of working experience. The majority are into retail and hardware supplies. The operational years of their businesses ranged from nine (9) to 55. Almost all were classified as having medium businesses and only one was classified as small. For their family business involvement, they have experienced early involvement in their businesses, they were trusted to manage, and they feel valued. Strong family relationships also emerged among business graduates. They have experienced parental comfort and advice as well as close relationships with their parents. As to the personal and work-related conflicts, they experienced careless operational mistakes, interpersonal work conflicts, emotional challenges, and limited freedom. When it comes to their contributions to the family businesses, they have contributed to the vision and internal control strategies, social media marketing, sales increase, financial clarity, and lessening the workloads of parents. This study can serve as a basis for involving business graduates early in the family business. Employing them can enable them to contribute success factors earlier. Maintaining strong relationships among family members employed in the family firm must be done to avoid personal and work-related conflicts.