Greek Firms and EMU:: Contrasting SMEs and Large-Sized Enterprises

The primary aim of this study is to contrast and identify differences in the ways by which SMEs and large firms have attempted to change their management practices in order to cope with the formidable challenges associated with competing in the EMU. Using survey data collected from leading Greek firms shortly before Greece's recent accession to the EMU, the study is an attempt to begin empirical work in this area by focusing on changes in competitive strategy, structure and management processes. The results indicate that both SMEs and large firms have initiated changes in all three dimensions. It seems, however, that the degree and direction of these responses depends on size; SMEs appear less able and/or less willing to implement change, perhaps because of size-related disadvantages.

[1]  R E Miles,et al.  Organizational strategy, structure, and process. , 1978, Academy of management review. Academy of Management.

[2]  Barbara W. Keats,et al.  Navigating in the new competitive landscape: Building strategic flexibility and competitive advantage in the 21st century , 1998 .

[3]  D. Hambrick.  High Profit Strategies in Mature Capital Goods Industries: A Contingency Approach , 1983 .

[4]  Tom R. Burns,et al.  The Management of Innovation. , 1963 .

[5]  A. Pettigrew,et al.  Change and Complementarities in the New Competitive Landscape: A European Panel Study , 1999 .

[6]  J. Scott Armstrong,et al.  Estimating nonresponse bias in mail surveys. , 1977 .

[7]  Mark A. Mone,et al.  The Mechanistic Structure Shift and Strategic Reorientation in Declining Firms Attempting Turnarounds , 1998 .

[8]  P. Lawrence,et al.  Organization and Environment: Managing Differentiation and Integration , 1967 .

[9]  Gregory G. Dess,et al.  Dimensions of Organizational Task Environments. , 1984 .

[10]  M. Morton,et al.  The corporation of the 1990s: Information technology and organizational transformation , 1993 .

[11]  L. Kim,et al.  Environment, Generic Strategies, and Performance in a Rapidly Developing Country: A Taxonomic Approach , 1988 .

[12]  D. Whetten.  Organizational Responses to Scarcity: Exploring the Obstacles to Innovative Approaches.to Retrenchment in Education , 1981 .

[13]  V. Papadakis,et al.  Greek Management: Diagnosis and Prognosis , 1996 .

[14]  Barry M. Staw,et al.  Threat-rigidity effects in organizational behavior: A multilevel analysis. , 1981 .

[15]  R. Leigh,et al.  The Single European Market and SMEs: A Comparison of its Effects in the Food and Clothing Sectors in the UK and Portugal , 1999 .

[16]  R. D. Buzzell,et al.  Product Quality, Cost Position and Business Performance: A Test of Some Key Hypotheses , 1983 .

[17]  D Miller,et al.  The generic strategy trap. , 1992, The Journal of business strategy.

[18]  R. Grant,et al.  Environments: Organizational Capability as Knowledge Integration , 2022 .

[19]  L. Kim,et al.  ENVIRONMENT GENERIC STRATEGIES, AND PERFORMANCE IN RAPIDLY DEVELOPING COUNTRY: A TAXONOMIC. , 1988 .

[20]  David J. Miller,et al.  Relating Porter's Business Strategies to Environment and Structure: Analysis and Performance Implications , 1988 .

[21]  H. Volberda,et al.  Strategic Renewal in Large European Firms: Investigating Viable Trajectories of Change , 2000 .

[22]  R. Mason,et al.  The Influence Prism in SMEs: The Power of CEOs' Perceptions on Technology Policy and Its Organizational Impacts , 1997 .

[23]  Spyros Makridakis,et al.  Greek hidden champions:: lessons from small, little-known firms in Greece , 2000 .

[24]  Spyros Makridakis,et al.  The dualism of greek firms and management: Present state and future implications , 1997 .

[25]  G. Hofstede,et al.  Culture′s Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values , 1980 .

[26]  H. Volberda.  Building the Flexible Firm , 1999 .

[27]  K. Eisenhardt,et al.  Competing on the Edge: Strategy as Structured Chaos , 1998 .

[28]  P. H. Friesen,et al.  Porter's (1980) Generic Strategies and Performance: An Empirical Examination with American Data , 1986 .

[29]  M. Porter.  Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance , 1985 .

[30]  R. Grant.  Toward a Knowledge-Based Theory of the Firm,” Strategic Management Journal (17), pp. , 1996 .

[31]  Sumantra Ghoshal,et al.  The Individualized Corporation , 1997 .

[32]  R. Hall.  The strategic analysis of intangible resources , 1992 .

[33]  D. Leonard-Barton,et al.  Wellsprings of Knowledge: Building and Sustaining the Sources of Innovation , 1995 .

[34]  M. Gordon,et al.  PUBLICATION RECORDS AND TENURE DECISIONS IN THE FIELD OF STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT , 1996 .