This article aims to describe the impact of external factors (government policy and collaboration synergy) and internal factors (successor knowledge and successor willingness) on the future viability of small and medium enterprise (SME) family businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic and experimentally validate the significance of firm age and gender as moderators. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used to analyze data from 170 owners or the next generation of family business SMEs. This study discovers evidence that government policy, collaborative synergy, successor knowledge, and successor willingness all significantly influence the SME family business’s viability. Meanwhile, it has been found that company age has a role in moderating the synergies between government policy and collaborative synergy with sustainability. However, gender is not proven to moderate the influence of internal factors on sustainability. The findings of this study imply that SME families must be able to form successors with the ability and knowledge to obtain business opportunities. During the COVID-19 epidemic, there must be an intense commitment to be responsible and transmit the family company to attain sustainability. In addition, the owner/next generation of family business businesses must take the initiative to take advantage of government assistance and collaborate with stakeholders.
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