Sustainability Innovativeness Agility as an Intervening Variable in the Managerial Competence to Business Performance Relationship of a Family-Owned Company

This study aims to understand the phenomenon of low business continuity to the next generation, and answer the research gap from previous research on the effect of managerial competence towards the business performance in family companies. This study also proposed and examined the novelty of sustainability innovativeness agility. The respondents were selected through a purposive sampling method from a population of retail traders and distributors based on a monthly turnover criteria of reaching more than USD $38,500 (Sekaran, 2008). The questionnaires were distributed through enumerators, who directly interviewed the traders and retailers. Although 243 respondents were interviewed, only 239 resulted in feasible questionnaires. This study investigated the relationship between five variables, and the endogenous variable of business performance. The managerial competence variable was measured by five indicators; the business performance variable was measured with four indicators; the business operation satisfaction variable was measured against three indicators; and the sustainability innovativeness agility variable was assessed against three indicators. The data processing was completed through a structural equation model, assisted by the IBM AMOS software version 22.0. The results evidenced the hypothesis in the previous research gap; the relationship between managerial competence, and business performance was able to be formed with the new concept of sustainability innovativeness agility, as an intervening variable. Based on the statistic calculation, the estimation value was 0.261, the CR value was 4.072, and the p-value was 0.000. These results enforced several implications for family- owned companies. If the companies continue to grow the business

performance, and improve their competitiveness, rather than rely on managerial competence, they should consider the sustainable innovativeness agility.
Key words: Sustainability innovativeness agility, Managerial competence, Business performance, Family-owned company.