Demystifying misted mirrors to investigate emerging people issues in SMEs: Implications for strategic change

Abstract

Although 'mirroring' has been studied within MNEs, the way SMEs deal with the challenges associated with implementing new products and services in change contexts remains a neglected area. By subsuming mirroring and change management theories under organisational theory, the author examines the impacts of these constructs on how four SMEs dealt with some of their challenges as they tried to launch new products, improve services and staff performance. The paper contributes to the organisation theory and strategy literature by initially identifying 'organisations design products' as a gap whose linkage to HRM architectural pairings produced the theoretical contribution referred to as 'Contingent Misting'. The theory helps in identifying the structural, cultural and technical characteristics that SMEs are dealing with and deepens our understanding of some of the emerging mirroring architectures that SMEs face. A thematic categorisation approach to the analysis of the interview data led not only to the paper's theoretical contribution of 'Contingent Misting' but also highlights individual and organisational-level characteristics whose combination help SMEs to better adapt to the complex challenges of product and service redesigns. The paper's 85 semi-structured interviews in 4 UK/internationally-connected SMEs was used to successfully frame SMEs' products, services, structures and people in a theory that highlights the contingent nature of people's competence when SMEs implement changes to practically tackle their challenges. 'Contingent Misting' was previously missing in the architectural pairings and mirroring literature and is therefore proposed as the paper's theoretical contribution. Its benefits, implications and future research directions are identified.

Exploration of small and medium entities' actions on sustainability practices and their implications for a greener economy

“…Mirroring concept has been employed in different studies to investigate different constraints organisations face and how they manage them whilst engaging in innovation (e.g., Elia et al, 2017); and the technical challenges and cultural limitation SMEs owners encounter in a service improvement and new product launches (Mendy, 2020). However, whilst there is evidence of mirroring having efficient and effective results in multinational enterprises (see, Elia et al, 2017), there are findings from other studies that demonstrate the model can explain various complexities surrounding organisations' behaviour towards innovation and success of their expected outcome.…”

“…In prior studies, the communication of the impact the activities of businesses have on the environment, including their core motivations have been explored through a diverse theoretical lens (stakeholder theory (Deegan, 2002;Gaia and Jones, 2017), legitimacy theory (Boiral, 2016) and institutional theory (DiMaggio and Powell, 1983)). However, while these theories help us to understand the motivations and factors driving business towards sustainability practices, our knowledge on how people and institution opt to shape their system and manage organisations obstacles that collide with their specific objectives and its impact on their expected outcome is limited (Mendy, 2020). This study, therefore, applies the concept of mirroring to examine the actions of SMEs toward sustainability practices, including their perspectives on the ongoing pursuit of a greener economy.…”

“…Hence, drawing from the "mirroring" concept, there is a premise that challenges push organisation into innovation to overcome the obstacle by ensuring that different organisation's component mirrors each other to achieve the innovative outcome (Mendy, 2020). With this, the participants' emphasis points to the direction that EMS and carbon emission management are not yet considered as challenges that can bother their productivity outcome and development.…”

“…The argument that remains in this context is that organisation's product and outcome “mirror” the shape and structure of the organisation's management system, problem-solving routine, governance structures and communication pattern in which they are developed (MacCormack et al ., 2012). Therefore, mirroring is considered a management technique, tool and innovative means of coupling organisations and products to implement strategic change and achieve expected outcomes (Mendy, 2020).…”

“…Moreover, the concept of mirroring is applied to explore the behaviour of SMEs towards sustainability practices may translate into the tangible outcome of achieving the net zero carbon emissions target. The concept of mirroring is used as it provides a lens to explore organisational management techniques and their innovative means of managing constraints and implementing strategic decisions to achieve expected outcomes (Mendy, 2020).…”