Nicholas O'Regan

Innovation in SMEs: the impact of strategic orientation and environmental perceptions

Purpose – To investigate the role and impact of strategic orientation and environmental perceptions on innovation and supporting mechanisms such as process technologies and management practices, in SMEs.Design/methodology/approach – A quantitative approach based on a random sampling methodology of 1,000 SMEs. Construct validity was tested in the qualitative phase of the research.Findings – SMEs can be categorised as either prospectors or defenders. This polarisation was confirmed in this study. For example, prospectors are more likely to engage in new product development, whereas defenders are five times more likely to modify an existing product than introduce a newly patented product. Prospector‐type firms tend to deploy more new process technologies and leading management practices compared with defender type firms, particularly in a turbulent operating environment. Defenders recognise the need to “catch up” and indicate that they intend to introduce process technologies over the next two years. Firms t...

The Impact of Ownership on Small Firm Behaviour and Performance

The impact of ownership on organizational performance has attracted the interest of a large number of scholars. The empirical research predominately focuses on the impact of ownership structures on organizational performance, and to a lesser extent on the relationship between ownership type and performance. The relationship between ownership and other organizational factors has received little attention. In this article we examine the relationship between independent and subsidiary plants/operating units and leadership style, culture, emphasis on dimensions of the strategy making process, barriers to the implementation of strategy and a matrix of performance measures. Overall we found that independent firms performed better along some but not all dimensions of performance. In addition, they placed less emphasis on dimensions of the strategy making process, faced more implementation barriers, and were more likely to have a transformational style of management. We found differences along dimensions of culture, but no significant difference in cultural strength.

Perceptions of generic strategies of small and medium sized engineering and electronics manufacturers in the UK: The applicability of the Miles and Snow typology

Purpose – To present the main findings of a study conducted in manufacturing firms in the UK to determine the applicability of generic strategies to small and medium sized firms (SMEs).Design/methodology/approach – The Miles and Snow strategic orientation typology was used to examine the emphasis on the factors used to craft strategy and its subsequent impact on organizational performance. The study examined its applicability in two contrasting sectors: engineering and electronics.Findings – Based on the responses obtained from 194 SMEs, the findings indicate that the main strategic orientation types present in this study are associated with different environment types; prospectors tend to perceive their environment as “dynamic” whereas defenders perceive their environment as “stable”. Distinct differences were found in relation to the emphasis of both orientation types on leadership, culture, strategy, and performance outcomes. Finally, the findings indicate that “prospectors” perform better than “defend...

Testing the homogeneity of SMEs: The impact of size on managerial and organisational processes

The European Commission (EC) is updating the definition of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) following widespread consultation. The EC is focusing on a redefinition of the financial ceiling criterion rather than the ceilings in relation to the number of persons employed in categorising SMEs as micro, small or medium. The retention of a ceiling of 250 employees as the overall employment criterion for SMEs has a major drawback in that it assumes that all firms from micro to medium have broadly similar organisational and managerial processes. Some researchers contend that organisational size based on employee numbers is an important underpinning factor in the way these processes are emphasised. The analysis presented indicates that while size is important, it does not have a significant impact on the managerial and organisational processes examined. These findings lend some support for the retention of the existing size criterion in the definition of SMEs.

Business-level strategy and performance : The moderating effects of environment and structure

Purpose – This study aims to examine the moderating effects of external environment and organisational structure in the relationship between business‐level strategy and organisational performance.Design/methodology/approach – The focus of the study is on manufacturing firms in the UK belonging to the electrical and mechanical engineering sectors, and respondents were CEOs. Both objective and subjective measures were used to assess performance. Non‐response bias was assessed statistically and appropriate measures taken to minimise the impact of common method variance (CMV).Findings – The results indicate that environmental dynamism and hostility act as moderators in the relationship between business‐level strategy and relative competitive performance. In low‐hostility environments a cost‐leadership strategy and in high‐hostility environments a differentiation strategy lead to better performance compared with competitors. In highly dynamic environments a cost‐leadership strategy and in low dynamism environm...

The use and deployment of soft process technologies within UK manufacturing SMEs: An empirical assessment using logit models

This study assesses the adoption of different soft process technologies from a survey of 218 British engineering and electronics small and medium‐sized firms (SMEs). The new process (soft) technologies that were modeled included total quality management, Kaizan, and statistical process control. Logit models demonstrate that the determinants of soft process technology adoption vary significantly from technology to technology. The study questions a blanket approach to technology adoption. Firm‐specific factors make a larger difference to the adoption of process technologies than competitive factors. While on the whole small firms are slow to adopt new techniques, this does not hold for all technologies, and future research might investigate what technologies SMEs adopt and why. Benchmarking, suggestions schemes, problem‐solving techniques and ISO 9000 adoption was unrelated to firm size, which holds out the prospect of soft process technologies as an alternative technological path for small firm productivity growth.

Scholarship That Matters: Academic–Practitioner Engagement in Business and Management

Our research explores academic–practitioner engagement by undertaking interviews with academics, practitioners, and other experts with relevant engagement experience. The findings highlight the problem of thinking narrowly about the different ways in which engagement takes place, as well as defining narrowly what is a worthwhile activity for management academics. We develop a framework that encompasses the main ways in which engagement takes place, and that relates these to different attitude groups among both academics and practitioners. This could provide a starting point for business schools and individual academics to develop plans and put in place the processes for better engagement. ........................................................................................................................................................................

Short- and Long-Term Performance in Manufacturing Smes: Different Targets, Different Drivers

Contrary to popular belief, managing short‐term performance differs significantly from managing long‐term performance. It is not an extension of short‐term performance over a longer‐term time frame. This paper examines the steps of managing performance from the context of organisational factors. The analysis indicates a dramatic picture as the improvement of short and long‐term performance is driven by distinctly different attributes of strategy, leadership, culture and organisational capability. The difference in all cases indicates that attributes that are perceived as “internally orientated” are associated with improving short‐term performance, whereas attributes that are commonly perceived as “externally orientated” are associated with improving long‐term performance. These findings will be helpful to managers focusing on improving their firms performance in the short or long term and enable them to focus on the attributes of each of the factors examined that help the achievement of the performance targets set.

Strategic planning—a comparison of high and low technology manufacturing small firms

This paper contends that firms can be classified according to the level of technology deployed in their products and processes into two main types: high and low technology firms. The paper further contends that the level of technology deployed will impact on the overall strategic planning process and its main drivers: leadership and organisational culture resulting in differing levels of corporate performance. Based on a nation-wide sample of 194 Managing Directors and Chief Executives of small and medium sized manufacturing firms, this study found that high technology firms tend to emphasise transformational and human resources leadership styles. Both of these leadership styles correlate positively with strategic planning and with the majority of performance indicators used. On the other hand, low technology firms emphasise transactional leadership, which correlates with internal strategy characteristics and short-term performance indicators. Similar results were obtained when culture styles were correlated with strategy and performance indicators in both types of firms. Finally, the overall performance of both types of firms indicates that high technology firms performed better than low technology firms. The findings suggest that low technology firms can achieve a similar confidence in facing the external environment as high technology firms by changing their strategic planning, leadership and organisational culture emphasis. q 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

High performance: ownership and decision‐making in SMEs

Purpose – To date there is a dearth of research on strategic decision‐making in manufacturing small and medium sized firms. This research paper focuses on the key drivers of decision‐making and organisational performance: ownership, decision‐making (type and level) and employee deployment. These drivers are defined and operationalised.Design/methodology/approach – The validity of the constructs used and their relevance was tested through the qualitative phase of the research – in‐depth interviews with chief executives and employer representative bodies. The survey instrument was also pilot tested.Findings – The findings indicate that the sample can be divided into performance leaders and laggards. Over 75 per cent of the leaders are independently owned and over 66 per cent of the laggards are subsidiary firms. Accordingly, ownership is a key factor in overall performance. This is confirmed by the degree of profitability of both classifications.Practical implications – The practical implications of the stu...