Understanding Business Management Strategies in Enhancing Profitable and Sustainable SMEs (original) (raw)
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International Journal for Research in Applied Science and Engineering Technology, 2019
The dynamics of the market conditions globally have made not only large corporation take cautious steps in their growth trajectory but also has been instrumental in providing a platform for small and medium enterprises across sectors to integrate themselves as growth engines in the economies both developed and developing. What seemed to be a never ending growth story considering the sheer magnitude with which the small and medium enterprises increasingly started to capitalize on the opportunity provided due to consolidation among large corporate has been relatively been marred by the own issues and challenges that the SME face at their level. SME's initially considered as a replacement for larger enterprises and being promoted by governments of developed countries are increasingly losing out on the growth parameters as their focus has become sustainability and not growth. Especially in India where the SME growth story has been phenomenal the way the available opportunities had to be exploited has not happened and this can largely be attributed to the strategic vacuum especially in terms of how the SME's have been able to market their brands, products and services. With reduction in cost and increase in quality of goods and services delivered reaching a near standardization across sectors the only area where the SME's in India can develop a unique selling proposition to create a sustainable business model would largely depend on how they are able to market themselves beyond the traditional focus on cost, quality people etc. Marketing arena of today is the most dynamic with focus changing more towards below the line strategies than above the line strategies which still holds relevance in certain sectors and geographies. This study would be an effort to understand the strategic vacuum in Indian SME's with a marketing perspective as to where the companies are lacking and what are they doing in comparison with the global SME counterparts and also to analyze certain successful SME strategies adopted by successful SME's and provide a series of "NBA"'s-Next Best Actions to Indian SME's on how to exploit the marketing opportunities with the use of multiple ammunitions which are available to them. This would require a comparison from 5 different sectors including automobiles, entertainment, hospitality, retail and financial service SME's globally on their successful marketing strategies and to establish a perspective to similar Indian SME's on how they can be customized to the domestic conditions. This research paper would be a step in identifying these strategies for SME business and on how they can develop a long term competitive advantage
Strategic Management from the Perspective of SMEs Operating in Service Sector
Quality Innovation Prosperity, 2021
Purpose: Providing high quality services is a basis for long-term competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises. Recognizing the success factors of transformation and strategic management is an issue that has been frequently addressed in the past two decades. The goal of this article is to evaluate the strategy of small and medium-sized enterprises offering services in tourism and catering. Methodology/Approach: The qualitative analysis was based on 107 completed interviews. Two hypotheses were formulated and an Independence Test was applied. Chi-square Test and Cross Table Analyiss were used which enable to examine the relationship between 2 non-metric variables. The two examined variables related to our Hypothesis 1 were ordinal, and 1 ordinal, 1 nominal in the case of Hypothesis 2. The significance level was p=0.05. Findings: The obtained results show weak relationship between the size of the business and the awareness of the strategy. No relationship can be detected between the size of the business and the evaluation of the key success factor Research Limitation/Implication: The research activity and obtaining research data from SMEs was obstacled by the pandemic situation caused by COVID-19. The research was limited by external circumstances, so the interviews with company representatives could be conducted on online platforms. Originality/Value of paper: The paper examines how successful the SMEs involved in the research are in communicating the values and goals of the company to their employees. It brings important findings in the field of stretegy management which leads to high quality services in the case of providers.
International Conference Hellenic Open Business Administration (HOBA) 2014, Patra Greece, 2014
Purpose of this study is to highlight some of entrepreneur's and sme's characteristics that are sources of competitive advantage. Further, the sources of competitive advantage drive to it. Thus, via the obtainment and maintenance of a diachronically long-term competitive advantage, a small business can achieve the principal objective of a firm which is maximization of its wealth and continuous stay on profit areas. Plethora of resources and competences were proposed as sources of competitive advantage in resource-based view and add continually new ones. It appears to suffer hierarchy of sources of competitive advantage regarding sustainability of these. Literature about sme and entrepreneur emphasizes the significant role of certain factors such as business size, management, ownership, data relating to the survival and competitiveness of sme, sales, profitability, liquidity, lack of skilled personnel, distribution channels data and market information, potential fundraising, use of innovation or new technologies, organizational structure, resources control, networking and clustering. Between factors that make up features of a successful small business are these influencing business size of sme, such as characteristics of entrepreneur, management strategies, external environment's influence, and sme's characteristics. Little difference exists between sme's failure and success. Apart from environmental factors, there are three categories of failures mentioned: functional knowledge, managerial skills and managerial behaviour, related to entrepreneur's and sme's characteristics.
Journal of Cleaner Production, 2009
Sustainability strategies create many synergistic effects for SMEs working collaboratively, as well as systemic benefits for the commons. After setting forth the business case for sustainable SMEs, and considering SME sustainability advantages in contrast to MNEs, this paper discusses several different incentives for SMEs to optimize sustainability: (1) becoming valuable sustainable investment targets for larger firms; (2) creating highly competitive networks of sustainable SMEs in market spaces where large enterprises are less successful; (3) becoming highly efficient suppliers in global supply chains through sustainable practices. While several successful models of the sustainable SME are evolving, it may be that networks of SMEs will become essential for addressing the systemic problems that underlie industrial ecology, enterprise resilience, and global supply chain sustainability. SMEs represent the majority of all enterprises, and rapidly evolving communication technologies allow for various routes of network formation.
This study tries to identify the challenges and opportunities of SMEs in developing countries in applying a sustainable business strategy as well as the barriers to doing business, through the example of SMEs in the Republic of Kosovo. In order to identify the opportunities and barriers in doing business in SMEs, research was conducted with 249 small and medium-sized enterprises. Out of the 250 surveyed enterprises, only one did not respond. The research additionally seeks to identify the challenges of developing adequate strategies for SMEs in developing countries, given the growing impact of large enterprises and corporations on the effects of the market economy. The research results were obtained in the period of September-December 2016. The research data show that the majority of registered enterprises are micro-businesses; the most preferred sector is trade; the most failed type of enterprise is individual business; the cost of the product represents the biggest obstacle in implementing the desired strategy; Kosovo's enterprises partially use Ansoff's recommendations for product development strategies, while most use market development strategies; the main bargains in doing business have been identified. These data and analysis will be useful for businesses, business owners, academics, students and policy makers.
SMEs’ Strategies for Improving Financial Performance Through Competitive Advantages
MIMBAR : Jurnal Sosial dan Pembangunan
This study aims to examine the direct effect of entrepreneurial orientation and innovation on competitive advantage and the impact of competitive advantage on the performance of SMEs. Furthermore, this study will also examine the indirect influence of entrepreneurial orientation and innovation variables on financial performance through competitive advantage. This is quantitative research using a survey method. The respondents are SMEs owners in the field of cultivation industry in Jember regency, Indonesia. This study uses the Structural Equation Model (SEM) as a data analysis technique, which is assisted by Warp PLS software. Statistical results show that entrepreneurial orientation and innovation have a direct effect on competitive advantage. Other results show that there is a direct effect of competitive advantage on financial performance. A company is said to have a competitive advantage if it can outperform other companies to create higher economic value. The results of the ind...
Sustainability as a management process for SMEs
uwf UmweltWirtschaftsForum, 2015
Zusammenfassung Der Bedarf an Nachhaltigkeitsberatung bei flämischen KMUs ist groß, die Zahlungsbereitschaft jedoch klein. Eine Analyse des Angebots der zahlreichen kostenlosen Programme und Modelle zeigt, dass diese nicht geeignet sind um sowohl strategisch als taktisch zu planen. Dieser Beitrag zeigt, wie ein kostenloser, generischer Management Prozess gestaltet werden kann auf der Basis von Literatur, Praxiserprobung und einer Analyse jener existierenden kostenlosen Programme. Das neue vorgeschlagene generische Modell ermöglicht es KMU-Managern, die Implementierung von Nachhaltigkeitsinitiativen besser zu planen, koordinieren und kontrollieren, ihre Produkte und Prozesse zu verbessern und auch auf strategischer Ebene über Nachhaltigkeit nachzudenken. Das auf PDCA und Projekt Management basierende Modell besteht aus fünf Phasen (Analyse, Steuerung, Spezifizierung, Implementierung, Kontrolle & Rapportierung) wobei die dritte Phase (Spezifizierung) durch ein Dashboard mit sämtlichen Themenbereiche und möglicher operationellen Zielsetzungen erweitert wird. 1 Problem statement, research questions and methodology The BASF-Deloitte-Elia-Chair on Sustainability, is a joint project between the University of Antwerp's Faculty of Applied Economics and Antwerp Management School. SMEs compose one of the strong points of focus for the Chair. Driven by the ambition to present practice-relevant research we look at tangible business impacts, instead of focusing on abstract or ethical constructs. This approach is vital when convincing management of small SMEs to integrate sustainability into their strategy and operations.
Improving Business Performance: A Proposed Model for SMEs
Culinary revenues comprise some of the main sources contributing to an increase in the Global Tourism Competitiveness Index and Region Own Source Revenue (ROSR). The high number of Small Medium Entrepreneurship (SME) traditional restaurants should increase ROSR. However, the revenue from this sector has not yet been optimised due to a lack of business performance. Traditional restaurants are losing their market to modern chain restaurants, some of which are franchises from outside Indonesia. How SME are coached viewed from the aspects of marketing capability and accountability accounting is the main issue of this paper. Both capabilities are expected to improve adaptability and, in turn, performance. This paper tries to trace the theoretical model of proposals regarding how both capabilities can affect performance directly or through adaptability. This study is very rare; one like it has never been conducted concerning SMEs, especially models that explain the existing phenomenon in Indonesia. Hopefully, this study will provide advanced research guidance and convenience to the government for SME traditional restaurants' coaching approach in encouraging culinary tourism and economic development.
Strategies and Strategic Management in Small Business
MPP Working Paper No. 15/2002, 2002
After many years of academic and scientific interest in the strategies of large enterprises, the situation has, not too many years ago, turned increasingly to the strategic behaviour of smaller enterprises. This is certainly justified, in fact essential, if we take into account the importance of small and medium-sized enterprises in the economies of most countries. Implementing strategic management in the current activity of the small enterprises has become a stringent necessity. This situation is a consequence of the serious challenges that exist on the market place, of the unstable balance of the business environment forces and other influencing factors that can be identified in the actual economic context, especially in the transition economies, where SMEs are very predominant and also very young and inexperienced (Lobontiu & Lobontiu, 2001). The existing literature on strategic management, whilst being difficult to reconcile in terms of the conflicting theories stated in the field, appears even further flawed in the SME context. On the other hand, if there is a single difference between the strategies of the SME and the large corporations, it is that they seem to be heading in different directions (MacGregor, 1999). Whilst SME strategies largely appear to be about growth and development, the corporate sector appears to have spent the last twenty years in a process of sub-division and shrinkage. This paper is a theoretical one, whose aim is to synthesize and systemize the most important ideas outlined in some of the papers and articles published in the field of strategic small business management. The problem here is that the information is very dispersed and it’s difficult for both a small business manager and an academic researcher to have a rapid overview of this field. So the author of the present paper is trying to facilitate this process, presenting the relevance of strategic management for small businesses. The author is also proving that the small business managers are actually very preoccupied by the issues of strategies and strategic management and that SMEs are displaying a pronounced strategic competitive behaviour.