Transgenerational tourism entrepreneurship in Langkawi Island, Malaysia

Transgenerational entrepreneurship is an evolution of the family business theory, but unfortunately, the theory has not been fully explored within the context of tourism planning. In traditional family business research, transgenerational entrepreneurship focuses on the family as the unit of analysis rather than the business entity. Furthermore, this shift in perspective has opened a new frontier for family business research within the context of tourism development. Interestingly, the family business is considered a nepotism-based economic model, but the model has managed to succeed and survive from the feudal economy to the modern economy of today. Entrepreneurship can be passed down through family generations, although the business could change in terms of ownership or product. Moreover, although the family is involved in an idiosyncratic tourism business, surprisingly, it can sustain and even emerge as a local tourism brand. Hence, from the perspective of tourism development, this research examined the role and characteristics on the success factors of transgenerational entrepreneurship. It also looks into the influence of these factors on the development of tourism and the economy in particular through sustaining family entrepreneurship and new venture creations. Thus, the research objective is to identify transgenerational entrepreneurship characteristics, family entrepreneurial behaviour and influence on the new venture creation activity in tourism business. The research adopted a qualitative approach, in which the snowball technique was used to identify 18 family businesses with at least two generations of entrepreneurs in Langkawi Island. An in-depth interview was conducted and thematic analysis was performed. The result discovered nine themes which are namely, survivability mindset, smallness, family business capital, family new ventures, family decision-making management, family cumulative entrepreneurship experience, entrepreneurship moulding, family values and culture, and goal achievement. It was found that the business is the main family entrepreneurship resource rather than an entity. Besides, new venture creation is the primary family entrepreneurship activity for the new generation and alternatively as an exit policy. Slightly different from conventional family business management, which is based on dictatorship, the families in this case study practised democratic monarchy where the owner would act as the final stamp of approval for any decisions. Another finding was that altruism influences of the family, thus proving that family businesses indeed have a nepotistic culture. Moreover, the repeated succession process eventually becomes a family entrepreneurship legacy because the successor has a sense of responsibility and is tacit in all knowledge transfers. Besides that, trust goes beyond the family sphere to involve suppliers, customers, and financial institutions. Therefore, the transgenerational tourism entrepreneurship model proposed in this study fills in the gap in transgenerational entrepreneurship and planning development models that have yet to be developed

Disaster risk in underground utility development: a matter of perception

The risk of development (or disaster) depends on the nature of the development itself and the potential disaster in the development area. However, the risk of disasters is a matter of perception. It depends on how an individual or group of individuals see or assess the characteristics of a phenomenon. Even it is subjective; it is vital to understand what risks people consider to be acceptable, especially the local players involved in the development works. Therefore, this paper presents how the local players perceive disaster risk in underground utility development. These local players were the authorities at the federal and state level, industry players, and academicians. Series of focus group discussions were conducted for data collection purposes, and the data was analyzed narratively. One aspect is the perception of disaster risk occurrence; either the disaster affects the development or otherwise. In turn, this evidence-based information could be one of the essential feeders to policymakers and disaster managers on what disaster risk reduction programmes have a better chance of being accepted by the local players. The success of this kind of programme is essential for sustainable underground utility functions for the future

Inherent factors of family business and transgenerational influencing tourism business in Malaysian islands

There is an indication that the existence of transgeneration enterprise has unique ability as a ‘resilient factor’ in sustainable tourism development. It bridges the relationship between resilience and sustainability. This paper highlight evidences of the relationship using two successful case studies of Small-Medium scale tourism enterprises on the islands in Malaysia, namely the islands of Langkawi and Tioman. The most important factors influencing successful family business in transgeneration enterprise by priority within the business wealth point of view are aspect of survival, followed by low-entry barriers, ‘passing the baton’, bridging relationship, ‘smallness’, and adapt and change. From the socioemotional wealth point of view, aspect of belonging followed by family welfare priorities, structural generation change, contextual embeddedness, attitude, informal decision making and friendly working environment influence the success of family business in transgeneration enterprises. Hence, sustainable tourism development in the context of local community empowerment might only be achieved once the ‘resilient factor’ is present or in place and ready at the tourism destination