Uncovering the structural flexibility dimensions of SMEs: Insights from a mixed-methods approach Academic Article in Scopus uri icon

abstract

  • © 2017 Academic Conferences Limited. All Rights Reserved. Although extant literature found plenty of quantitative research about small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developed countries, there is a remarkable lack of mixed methodology studies on SMEs in developing economies affecting our knowledge of their competitiveness. The main purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the utility of applying a quantitative-qualitative method to uncover the particularities of the five-dimensional model of structural flexibility (SF) found in literature, in the context of SMEs in Mexico. This study attempts to respond to how quantitative and qualitative approaches can be integrated to explain SME structural flexibility. A dominant quantitative method with a supporting qualitative method (QUANT¿qual) was employed, following a sequential explanatory design. First, a collection and analysis of quantitative data was run through an exploratory factor analysis. Then, a content analysis of participant interview testimonies was conducted in the qualitative phase. From the five dimensions of SF, only four were supported by the quantitative phase. However, the fifth factor "decision-making" was integrated into the model through the qualitative phase. This methodological insight helped to understand that this factor has special characteristics given the tendency of decision-making centralisation by owner-managers, a very different behaviour when compared to larger companies. This centrality was also identified as a variable that constrains flexibility and limits SME growth. The conclusions are useful for academics, researchers and managers because they provide support to the view that a mixed-methods research strengthens the findings, particularly in this case, when a context, field-based qualitative phase helped to gain a deeper understanding in ways that quantitative data did not allow. Conclusions also provide a more holistic understanding of SMEs in developing economies, showing that they may present different SF characteristics from what is found in larger resource-rich companies of developed countries. A QUANT-qual methodological triangulation was decisive to achieve this understanding.

publication date

  • January 1, 2017