IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bbn/journl/2010_1_5_kurucz.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

STRATEGY COMPETENCES AND PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT IN THE HUNGARIAN SMEs SECTOR

Author

Listed:
  • ATTILA KURUCZ

    (University of West-Hungary, Faculty of Economics)

Abstract

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) are potentially the most dynamic sector of the economy. SME represent 99% of all companies in the EU. They are the biggest sector of the EU economy, with 23 million enterprises employing around 75 million people. These small organizations are responsible for the creation of one in every two new jobs. SME produce considerably more than half the EU's GDP. Their growth is key for the overall economic well-being. The European countries have several programs and measures in place to promote SME growth. But how do they think about their potential and their future? This paper focuses on factors affecting the growth and performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The aim was to identify strategic factors differentiating young and long-lived growth SMEs and find out the coherency with performance. A comparison of the two fields shows an interesting picture in the Hungarian SMEs sector. The results suggest that the organization structure and the applied leadership methods exercise an influence on SME growth strategies. The results increase our understanding of the factors affecting SME growth and performance in two different contexts. This paper draws on survey and interview material, from research with entrepreneurs in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to examine the process of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial competences in SMEs. Underlining two main business fields: cost management and performance management. This paper reviews the contribution of cost accounting and strategy thinking, which, it is argued, have been developed for large firms rather than SMEs. More appropriate theories are examined from fields that accepted the impact of uncertainty and dynamics in decision-making, such as performance prism to learning and development. Case study evidence is presented on the nature of entrepreneurial behaviour in growth SMEs and compared with theories in the literature.

Suggested Citation

  • Attila Kurucz, 2010. "STRATEGY COMPETENCES AND PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT IN THE HUNGARIAN SMEs SECTOR," JOURNAL STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABES-BOLYAI NEGOTIA, Babes-Bolyai University, Faculty of Business.
    • Handle: RePEc:bbn:journl:2010_1_5_kurucz
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://tbs.ubbcluj.ro/RePEc/bbn/journl/2010_1_5_Kurucz.pdf
    File Function: Revised version, 2009
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Davidsson, Per, 1991. "Continued entrepreneurship: Ability, need, and opportunity as determinants of small firm growth," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 6(6), pages 405-429, November.
    2. Juan Jose Alfaro, Saiz, Angel Ortiz Bas, Raul Poler Escoto, Ruben Dario Franco, 2002. "Performance measurement for e-business enterprises," International Journal of Business Performance Management, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 4(2/3/4), pages 296-315.
    3. Cooper, Arnold C., 1993. "Challenges in predicting new firm performance," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 241-253, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Aidis, Ruta & van Praag, Mirjam, 2007. "Illegal entrepreneurship experience: Does it make a difference for business performance and motivation?," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 283-310, March.
    2. Man, Thomas W. Y. & Lau, Theresa & Chan, K. F., 2002. "The competitiveness of small and medium enterprises: A conceptualization with focus on entrepreneurial competencies," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 123-142, March.
    3. Ruta Aidis & Mirjam van Praag, 2004. "Illegal Entrepreneurship Experience," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 04-105/3, Tinbergen Institute.
    4. Johanna Vanderstraeten & Ellen Loots & Anais Hamelin & Arjen van Witteloostuijn, 2020. "Micro-foundations of small business internationalization: introduction to the Special Section," Post-Print hal-03015594, HAL.
    5. Liñán Alcalde, Francisco & Martín Martín, Domingo & González Rodríguez, Rosario, 2002. "Characteristics of nascent entrepreneurs in Germany," ERSA conference papers ersa02p179, European Regional Science Association.
    6. Olson, Patricia D. & Zuiker, Virginia S. & Danes, Sharon M. & Stafford, Kathryn & Heck, Ramona K. Z. & Duncan, Karen A., 2003. "The impact of the family and the business on family business sustainability," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 18(5), pages 639-666, September.
    7. Carlos Bazan & Hannah Gaultois & Arifusalam Shaikh & Katie Gillespie & Sean Frederick & Ali Amjad & Simon Yap & Chantel Finn & James Rayner & Nafisa Belal, 2020. "A systematic literature review of the influence of the university’s environment and support system on the precursors of social entrepreneurial intention of students," Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 9(1), pages 1-28, December.
    8. Ruta Aidis & Tomasz Marek Mickiewicz, 2005. "Growth expectations of business owners: impact of human capital, firm characteristics and environmental transition," UCL SSEES Economics and Business working paper series 50, UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES).
    9. Messele Kumilachew Aga, 2023. "The mediating role of perceived behavioral control in the relationship between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intentions of university students in Ethiopia," Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 1-18, December.
    10. M. Kamil Kozan & Levent Akdeniz, 2014. "Role of Strong versus Weak Networks in Small Business Growth in an Emerging Economy," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 4(1), pages 1-16, February.
    11. Carlos Bazan, 2022. "Effect of the University’s Environment and Support System on Subjective Social Norms as Precursor of the Entrepreneurial Intention of Students," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(4), pages 21582440221, October.
    12. Erik Stam & Roy Thurik & Peter van der Zwan, 2010. "Entrepreneurial exit in real and imagined markets," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 19(4), pages 1109-1139, August.
    13. Westhead, Paul & Wright, Mike & Ucbasaran, Deniz, 2001. "The internationalization of new and small firms: A resource-based view," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 333-358, July.
    14. Zahra, Shaker A., 1996. "Technology strategy and new venture performance: A study of corporate-sponsored and independent biotechnology ventures," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 11(4), pages 289-321, July.
    15. Niklas Elert, 2014. "What determines entry? Evidence from Sweden," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 53(1), pages 55-92, August.
    16. Francisco Liñán & Yi-Wen Chen, 2006. "Testing the Entrepreneurial Intention Model on a Two-Country Sample," Working Papers 0607, Departament Empresa, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, revised Jul 2006.
    17. Desislava Ivanova Yordanova, 2011. "Growth Plans of Bulgarian Enterprises: An Empirical Investigation of Individual, Organizational and Environmental Influences," International Journal of Finance, Insurance and Risk Management, International Journal of Finance, Insurance and Risk Management, vol. 1(1), pages 1-30.
    18. Maria Tunberg & Alistair R. Anderson, 2020. "Growing a small firm; experiences and managing difficult processes," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 16(4), pages 1445-1463, December.
    19. repec:zib:zbmbmj:v:1:y:2022:i:2:p:77-83 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Marco van Gelderen & Marco van Gelderen & Niels Bosma & Niels Bosma & Roy Thurik & Roy Thurik, 2001. "Setting up a business in the Netherlands," Scales Research Reports H200013, EIM Business and Policy Research.
    21. Watson, John, 2007. "Modeling the relationship between networking and firm performance," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 22(6), pages 852-874, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Entrepreneurship; firm performance; firm strategy; small and medium enterprises;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance
    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship
    • M21 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Economics - - - Business Economics

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bbn:journl:2010_1_5_kurucz. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Cornelia Pop (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fbubbro.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.