Entrepreneur Preparedness to the Development of Probable Successors in Entrepreneurial Organization: Scale Development and Validation

Abstract

Preparedness of an entrepreneur with regards to development of his probable successors especially for key roles is not only critical and important keeping in view the long-term business success but also to remain competitive. This research paper presents the creation and verification of the entrepreneur preparedness to the development of probable successors in Entrepreneurial Organization engagement scale, as tested on a sample of 150. The respondents included Leadership Team, Heads of Human Resources and senior management team members of the organizations belonging to 48 organizations due to the involvement of senior management of these organizations and homogeneous nature of the population. The basis of selection was their entrepreneurial orientation. The organizations are more than a year old to maximum of 90 years old. Organizations which were selected belonged to across industries irrespective of national geography as the meaning of entrepreneurial orientation remains same in any industry. Sampling of participants focused primarily on role of respondents in succession planning for probable successors in their organizations. The scale is a 19 item self-reporting questionnaire (1 was dropped as it was irrelevant) that measures four facets of development of probable successors with regards to Statements that represent preparedness of Entrepreneur with regards to the development of probable successors in entrepreneurial Organization. The test-retest reliability and internal consistency of the subscales were both quite good. All the dimensions of development of probable successors were positively and significantly related. The results of EFA rendered 3 distinct factors namely; Leadership Commitment to Planned succession, Communication of Planned succession to probable successors, Succession decisions directed by Family concerns, values and norms. These factors were then checked for construct validity and discriminant validity followed by structural model fit assessment.