Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-1-2016
Abstract
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the largest engines of job creation and innovation in the U.S. and many parts of the world--yet most of them fail within the first five years of being opened. While the factors that contribute to their failures have been well studied, there is little empirical research about how they survive difficult economic periods. How can SMEs compete and grow in the face of today's complex, turbulent, and fiercely competitive business environment? The aim of this study is to provide a better understanding of how leaders of successful SMEs enable their businesses to survive and compete in such an environment. Semi-structured interviews with the leaders of 32 SMEs were conducted in order to understand their "lived" experiences in managing their businesses. Their responses reveal that, in challenging periods, what primarily distinguishes SMEs that survive from those that fail is advance preparation through continuous learning coupled with the leader's ability to engage his or her workforce in leadership practices and decision-making to pursue common goals. Thus, contrary to traditional resource-based research on SMEs, this study supports a knowledge-based view and extends dynamic capabilities theory of how SMEs create and sustain competitive advantage.
Keywords
job creation, management, business enterprises, Weatherhead School of Management, leadership, strategic leadership, competitive advantage, small and medium-sized enterprise, resources-based view, knowledge-based view, dynamic capabilities theory, reciprocity relationship, positive culture, time management, business survival
Rights
© The Author(s). This is an open access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Department/Center
Design & Innovation
Recommended Citation
Quansah, Emmanuel, "Leading Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in a Difficult Period: What Differentiates Success From Failure" (2016). Student Scholarship. 282.
https://commons.case.edu/studentworks/282