Frugality, Family-Cohesiveness and Firm Growth; A Case of Small Firms around Oil & Gas Fields in Uganda

A common impression is that most small firms largely face resource scarcity challenges that inhibit firm growth. This study concentrates on the elements of frugality, operationalized as spending discipline and delaying gratification as well as family cohesiveness, operationalized as family member supportiveness and usefulness in firms. This study is focused around Uganda’s oil and gas fields and these natural resources are expected to influence to small firms growth. In the current study, firm growth is measured in terms of asset value accumulation over time. Empirical findings on frugality, family cohesiveness and growth aim essentially to answer the overarching dilemma of small firm recurrent failures in Uganda. Results in study show that there is a mild relationship between frugality and family cohesiveness thus augmenting the existing perspectives of the resource based view theory. However, the random effect logistic regression results show contrasting results on the predictor effects of; family financing support, oil and gas operations, frugality, and family cohesiveness on the outcome variable - small firm asset growth.