Survival Skills in SMEs—Continuous Competence Renewing and Opportunity Scanning

Abstract

This article focuses on how SMEs react in drastic environmental changes and what part competences play in business survival. The comparative qualitative case study is based on interviews in Finnish and Russian SMEs that have encountered drastic changes in their business environments. The findings indicated differences in the entrepreneurial competences of the SMEs between the countries, such as passive in environmental and=or opportunity scanning. As practical implications, we highlight the need for SMEs to invest in competence renewing to avoid competence traps. Surviving SMEs must also possess a forward-looking attitude with the opportunity exploitation and exploration.

Consolidation and fragmentation in environmental scanning: A review and research agenda

“…Moreover, rapid changes in technology are known to provide significant cognitive and organisational challenges for managers (Raffaelli et al, 2019;Singh et al, 2019) A key area of theory requiring development is the nature of ES in relation to dynamic capabilities. ES has already been identified as a fundamental component of entrepreneurial and marketing capabilities (Frazier and Huddleston, 2009;Taipale-Erävala et al, 2015). Further ES research using the dynamic capabilities framework would clarify and extend understanding in this area and, by extension, demonstrate more clearly how ES contributes to organisational performance.…”

“…Research related to entrepreneurial behaviour has characterised ES as part of a wider set of entrepreneurial competences that enhance the ability to spot market opportunities (Taipale-Erävala et al, 2015). ES using personal networks in small firms has been shown to enhance marketing competences (Frazier and Huddleston, 2009) and broad ES enhances an organisation's ability to develop new competences over time (Danneels, 2008).…”

Perceived benefits of social media networks impact on competitive behavior of Indonesia SMEs: Food and beverage sector

“…It also has the ability to generate products and multiple actions of innovation (Pierre & Fernandez, 2018, Mačiulienė & Skaržauskienė, 2020, enhance competitiveness, and to benchmark the assets and processes, market intelligence, access of global markets, and knowledge networks at relatively low cost (Singh et al, 2008, Sitharam & Hoque, 2016, OECD, 2017. However, innovations that increase SME performance to survive in a dynamic competitive environment remains ambiguous (Taipale-Erävala et al, 2015).…”

Impact of skill on bi-dimensional trust within small-to-medium sized enterprises upstream relationships

“…However, failure rates for skill dependent and trust-driven SME business relationships were quite high (Gupta and Nanda, 2015). These failures indicated that SME partnerships lacked a “common language” to comprehend the strategic intent of the involved parties (Taipale-Eravala et al , 2015). Even though appropriate skills were on offer, still a majority of SMEs were unable to establish workable business relationships (Brunswicker and Vanhaverbeke, 2015).…”