Abstract
This article proposes to understand strategic decision-making within family businesses (FBs), with particular emphasis on the role of the different stakeholders in this decision-making. For this, we carried out a qualitative casuistic study. The convenience sampling method enabled us to constitute a sample of eight cases of FBs, with which we conducted semi-structured interviews. Thematic data analysis was made with the content of these interviews. The results obtained show that the decision-making process is not identical within the FBs. However, it remains a power play controlled directly and at different levels by the founding shareholder and indirectly by the members of his nuclear family. This process differs from the model of Fama (1980) and Fama and Jensen (1983) either by the size of the process and the intertwining of roles (Model 1) or by the level of involvement of the nuclear family in the process (Model 2). This article highlights the permanent involvement, formal and/or informal, of the family in the decision-making process and the need to encourage the establishment of a code of governance specific to these FBs
Highlights
For several decades, scientific research has intensified on family businesses (FBs)
This research work has allowed us to clear the field of investigation on the strategic decision-making process within the FBs in Cameroon and to produce the first results
Cameroonian FBs, strategic decision-making remains traditional; the person of the majority shareholder or founder still holds the bulk of decision-making powers
Summary
Scientific research has intensified on family businesses (FBs). These entities represent in almost all countries more than 80% of the economy. Two decades already since the very first research on FB was conducted in Cameroon It is the work of Tchankam (2000), whose aim was to show what FB represents in Cameroon. A few years later, Feudjo’s (2006) article that studied the relationship between ownership structure and governance within the FBs followed He concludes that the concentration of family ownership has as a corollary the trivialization of the legislative framework of corporate governance in favor of informal structures and oversight mechanisms. The direct consequence of this is the risk of confusion between the mode of governance of a firm and its mode of governance (Hirigoyen, 2002) From these studies and from other economic or socio-cultural contexts, it emerges that the strategic decision-making process has not yet been analysed. Strategic decision-making is of vital importance for companies, and understanding the interaction between the different parties involved is a matter of urgency in the process of rationalizing and controlling the power exercised by each of these stakeholders
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