L’effet de l’âge et de la taille sur la performance financière et économique des PME

Abstract

Les PME constituent un ensemble d'entreprises fort hétérogène qui se distinguent par le type de marché desservi, la stratégie poursuivie par leur direction, la performance dans le temps, mais aussi par l'âge et la taille. Cette hétérogénéité est souvent mise de côté par les chercheurs pour des questions de commodité, mais surtout par méconnaissance de l'impact de ce choix. Ainsi, dans leurs travaux, ces derniers rassemblent souvent des groupes de taille en ne tenant pas compte de l'âge, supposant, implicitement ou non, que les petites sont également jeunes, et que les grandes sont nécessairement âgées. Or, cette supposition ne convient pas à une grande partie des PME où les dirigeants ne souhaitent pas croître alors qu'une minorité évolue au rythme des gazelles, et que cette volonté influence nécessairement l'organisation de l'entreprise ainsi que sa performance financière et économique. Cette étude exploratoire réalisée auprès de 288 entreprises manufacturières québécoises révèle que l'étude de la performance des PME et de ses déterminants doit prendre en compte la taille et l'âge pour une compréhension affinée des comportements. Ainsi, la taille et l'âge n'apparaissent pas comme des variables substituables. Ces résultats devraient inciter à une certaine prudence chez les chercheurs qui ne distinguent pas ces facteurs clefs de différenciation ainsi que chez les gouvernements dans l'élaboration de leurs programmes de soutien aux PME qui sont souvent définis en fonction de l'un ou l'autre de ces critères.ABSTRACT. SMEs make up a heterogeneous set of businesses that are distinguished by the market they serve, the strategy pursued by management, their performance through time, as well as their size and age. Researchers often disregard this heterogeneity for the sake of convenience, but also because of their lack of understanding of the impact this decision has on the results obtained. Therefore, in their studies, researchers often group SMEs by size, without taking into account the age of the enterprise-assuming implicitly or not that small businesses are new operations and that larger ones have necessarily been in business for years. However, this assumption is incorrect for a large portion of SMEs where management does not wish to grow and for a minority of gazelle companies with rapid growth. Management decisions will have an impact on the firm organization and on its financial and economic performance. This exploratory study of 288 Quebec manufacturing firms reveals that the study of SME performance and the factors that influence it must take into account the size and age of the firm to have a clearer understanding of the behaviours. The size and the age of the firm do not seem to be substitutable variables. In light of these results, researchers should be prudent with their conclusions when not distinguishing between these key differentiating factors and governments should be careful when developing new programs to support SMEs that use age or size as a defining criterion.

The effect of size and age on the performance of Senegalese small food companies: the role of market orientation

“…It is also a variable that helps classify companies into homogeneous groups and can be measured mostly from the number of employees or the turnover of the company (Walker & Tobias, 2006). However, we must admit that these two criteria are not necessarily synonyms (St-Pierre, Julien, & Morin, 2010). According to these authors, the nuance lies in the fact that a variation of one of the criteria does not necessarily lead to a variation of the other.…”

“…As for age, it is generating a lot of interest in the literature on small businesses (Coad, Holm, Krafft, & Quatraro, 2018). When actually some people consider it a variable of contingency, of behaviour or of control, others think that it is a determining factor to the growth, the sustainability and the performance of the company (St-Pierre et al, 2010;Walker & Tobias, 2006). Moreover, age is an indicator of the company's level of experience, which is positively linked to its efficiency and its ability to maintain itself in its market (Nguyen et al, 2015).…”

Innovation capabilities of hi-tech small and medium-sized enterprises (SMES): A comparative analysis between China and France

“…Nevertheless, St-Pierre et al [10] 11 , in their exploratory study of 288 manufacturing firms, reveal that the size and the age of the firm do not play a role of substitutable variables while the researchers conduct a study of SME performance, because the factors must take into account the size and age of the firm to have a clearer understanding of the behavior which many managements of SMEs are likely to avoid in developing their firms because of the lack of willingness. 5 Natarajan, B., et al, (2008): Firm age and innovation, Industrial and Corporate Change, 17, 5: 1019-1047.…”

“…however, Sorensen and Stuart [4] find that firm age is negatively related to innovation capabilities in semiconductors but positively so in biotechnology. Mlouka et al [6], Cohen & Klepper [7]; Kim et al [8], Becker et al [9], St-Pierre et al [10] 50 etc. found different relationships between firm size/age and innovation capabilities from many variable perspectives.…”

The relevance of human capital to firm performance: A focus on the retail industry in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo

“…As per the hypotheses, the dependent variable for this study was venture performance and included both financial and non-financial indicators such as sales growth rate, operating profit, profit to sales ratio, market development and growth in product range and numbers of branches or stores (St-Pierre et al 2010). …”