Kottika E, Özsomer A, Rydén P, Theodorakis IG, Kaminakis K, Kottikas KG, Stathakopoulos V. We survived this! What managers could learn from SMEs who successfully navigated the Greek economic crisis.
Industrial Marketing Management 2020;
88:352-365. [PMCID:
PMC7286645 DOI:
10.1016/j.indmarman.2020.05.021]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/01/2020] [Revised: 05/19/2020] [Accepted: 05/21/2020] [Indexed: 05/22/2023]
Abstract
Small and medium size enterprises in both business to business and consumer markets are particularly vulnerable to economic downturns. Concentrating on the Greek economic crisis, one of the toughest and most prolonged on a global scale, the present research sheds light on both anthropocentric and business-centric factors that helped SMEs survive, therefore, providing a valuable survival manual. Per findings of two studies performed under the given economically intense conditions, it is evidenced that the right answer to survival rests upon: (a) the entrepreneurs' personality traits and skills that affect the market and entrepreneurial orientations of SMEs, (b) the adoption of such orientations that keep impacting the firms' performance, and finally (c) the implementation of strategy relevant to reaching higher quality standards for products and services, combined with tactics relevant to downsizing, marketing actions, extroversion, and financial management.
Entrepreneurs' traits influence SMEs' EO and MO, which then impact performance.
The main strategy of SMEs that survived was the one of improving product quality.
In crisis, survival tactics include: downsize, marketing actions, extroversion, financial management.
The study applied the novel and robust analytical approach of the Bayesian SEM.
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