STRATEGIC PLANNING AND FAMILY BUSINESS PERFORMANCE IN GHANA: MODERATING ROLE OF IT CAPABILITY

One ability that has been generally expressed as basic for firms' survival and sustenance is information technology (IT) capability. The purpose of this study is to investigate the moderating role of IT capability on strategic planning and financial performance of family businesses in Ghana. The research is generally a quantitative research which attempts to explore the causal effect of the interaction of IT capabilities and strategic planning on the performance of family businesses in Ghana. The study explores the use of both primary and secondary data sources as the bases for extracting relevant information to answer the research questions. The sample size of 80 family businesses was selected using purposive sampling techniques. Statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) was used as the main analytical software to conduct this research. The data analysis employed the hierarchical multiple regression technique to explore the relationship between the key variables of this study. The study revealed that most of the family businesses in Ghana have attained moderate levels of performance. It is further revealed that strategic planning activities are not widely pursued among the family firms in Ghana; however, the findings of this study showed that there is a significant positive relationship between strategic planning and family firm performance. Moreover, the study has revealed that there is a strong relationship between IT capability of the family businesses in Ghana and their performance. Pertaining to the moderating effect of IT capability, it was found that the integration of strategic planning activities with IT capabilities enhances the performance of family firms in Ghana.