Strategic Drivers and Sustainability of Family-Owned Supermarkets: A Case of Kiambu County, Kenya

Abstract

The retail sector in Kenya, particularly family-owned supermarkets, plays a critical role in the economy. However, their sustainability is threatened by challenges such as poor management skills, inadequate succession planning, weak governance, inefficient supply chain management, and unfavourable external environmental factors. The general objective of this study was to investigate the effect of strategic drivers on the sustainability of family-owned supermarkets in Kiambu County, Kenya. Specifically, the study assessed the effect of management skills, succession planning, governance, and supply chain management on sustainability, and examined the moderating effect of external environmental factors on the strategic drivers-sustainability relationship. The study was anchored on Transformational Leadership Theory, Stewardship Theory, Upper Echelon Theory, and the Resource-Based View, and adopted a pragmatist research philosophy with a mixed-methods design that integrated quantitative and qualitative approaches. The study used a cross-sectional survey design and stratified random sampling to select 183 respondents from family-owned supermarkets registered with the Kiambu County Licensing Department; data were collected through structured questionnaires complemented by in-depth key informant interviews. The reliability and validity of the research instrument were established, and diagnostic tests confirmed the model was free of multicollinearity and heteroscedasticity concerns. Quantitative data were analyzed using structural equation modelling to test the direct and moderating relationships, while qualitative data were analyzed thematically to complement the quantitative findings. The study found that the strategic drivers had positive influence on sustainability of family-owned supermarkets; Management skills had a statistically significant positive effect on sustainability (β = 0.148, t = 6.012, p = 0.016); Succession planning had a statistically significant positive effect on sustainability (β = 0.138, t = 2.458, p = 0.015); Governance had the strongest individual positive effect on sustainability (β = 0.652, t = 11.919, p < .001) and supply chain management had a strong positive and statistically significant effect on sustainability (β = 0.631, t = 11.349, p < .001). Additionally, external environmental factors had a negative and significant moderating effect (β = −.176; t = −2.885; p = .004). The study concluded that strategic drivers contributed positively to family-owned business sustainability, even after accounting for the moderating effect of external environmental factors. The study recommends that family-owned supermarkets prioritize governance formalization, strengthen supply chain resilience, invest in management competency development, and establish formalized succession planning frameworks, while policymakers design regulatory environments that minimize compliance burdens while supporting long-term institutional capacity building. The study generates new empirical knowledge by establishing that governance is the single most powerful driver of sustainability. The study also contributes new knowledge by documenting the negative moderating effect of external environmental factors on the strategic drivers-sustainability relationship.