Pilot Study of the Determinants of SMEs Development in the South Moravian Region: Size and Sector Specifics

Abstract

Purpose of the article: This paper represents a pilot study examining determinants of the development of market active micro, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in South Moravian Region (SMR). The reason is their socio-economic role which is important for many economies and growing recognition of the importance of removing constraints to help established SMEs support to maintain and improve their competitiveness, leading to the need to understand the factors contributing to this. Methodology/methods: The empirical evidence is based on a quantitative data gathered through an email questionnaire which yielded 76 qualified responses with fewer than 250 employees. The analysis is based on descriptive statistics and validation technique based on chi-square nonparametric test. The analysis was conducted in SPSS for Windows, version 11.5. Scientific aim: The objective of this study is to identify various pressures and constraints in the strategic behavior of small business with discussion to the following four dimensions: product development, market development, development of business cooperation and investment strategies for development of competencies. And further, test of independence (differences) of these determinants by size category and industry affiliation of respondents, which may influence the importance of a wide range of different circumstances for each individual firm and the complex interaction of forces that affect it. Findings: The results of this study clearly show that it is necessary to take into account the factor of size and sectoral dimension, which affect the selection and perception of the importance of determinants and their subsequent translation into strategic decisions. In general, an economic decline, pressures on the quality and a range of offered products, a lack of managerial competence and excessive costs of innovation activities are the most frequent determinants of development activities of SMEs in the SMR. However, due to the overal testing of variables by size and sector showed significant differences in the selection of external, competing and internal determinants which influence strategic behaviour of SMEs. Conclusions (limits, implications etc.): The study has its scope limits owing to the character of the crosssectional research performed at a fairly small sample from a single region. Therefore the results cannot be generalized in any way. And also, the area of unequal representation (representativeness) of the respondents in the size and sector category may lead to a distorted evaluation of statistical data analysis.