Strategic planning in SMEs – some empirical findings

Abstract

Strategic frameworks and tools of analysis have been the subject of much academic debate over the last 20 years. This paper reviews the main approaches to strategic management and, by presenting the results of a survey of 159 small and medium sized enterprises selected from both the service and manufacturing sectors, demonstrates a divide between the theoretical concepts and the practical realities of strategic planning. While there are strong indications of business planning among the organisations surveyed, there is less evidence of strategic thinking except among larger businesses. Even in this latter group there are only a few instances where the recognised tools of strategic management appear to play a role in planning, the exception being internal financial analysis, which is widely undertaken.

Strategic Planning and Organisational Effectiveness in Jordanian Hotels

“…Surprisingly, this finding is inconsistent with a previous study by Aldehayyat (2011) undertaken in the Jordanian context, which found that the time horizon for hotels in two cities in Jordan -namely, Petra and Aqaba -is 3.1 years. The finding is also inconsistent with a previous study by Stonehouse and Pemberton (2002) who found that the median value for the planning horizon in UK organisations is 3 years. The findings of this research, however, are consistent with Dincer et al's (2006) study in the context of Turkish organisations, which found that very few organisations had a planning horizon of more than 4 years.…”

Entrepreneurial Competency as Determinant for Success of Female Entrepreneurs in Nigeria

“…Ahmad et al (2010) articulated strategic competency as the ability of the entrepreneur to monitor progress toward strategic goals, prioritise task to agree with business objectives, identify longterm issues, threats or opportunities, current actions to be in line with strategic goals, match the outcome against strategic goals, redesign business to achieve long-termgoals adequately, determine strategic actions through weighing costs and benefits. It is also, the ability to setup long term strategic plan that relates to the vision of the organization and also develop strategies that will enable the achievement of the plan (Stonehouse and Pemberton, 2002). One of the central functions of the entrepreneurs is to be able to identify and make the best use of business opportunities capable of stimulating the performance of the firm.…”

Towards a new framework for SMEs success: a literature review

“…In addition, their research reveals that smaller enterprises not only plan, but most of them plan in a formal way and use large time spans. However, several authors argue that the strategic planning process of SMEs is informal and is rarely supported by planning instruments with managers being too busy to plan and the market changing too fast (Chen et al, 2008;Chen et al, 2010;Stonehouse and Pemberton, 2002;Vodopiveca, 2012). Sumantra (2008) concludes that formal planning is not a necessary condition for success, but can yield benefits for all types of companies.…”