IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wsi/jecxxx/v19y2011i01ns0218495811000672.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How Do Australian Fast-Growth Small-To-Medium Enterprises Measure Performance?

Author

Listed:
  • CAROLINE SWEE LIN TAN

    (School of Management, RMIT University, GPO Box 2476V, Melbourne, 3001, Victoria, Australia)

  • KOSMAS X. SMYRNIOS

    (School of Management, RMIT University, GPO Box 2476V, Melbourne, 3001, Victoria, Australia)

Abstract

Utilizing a case study methodology, this study investigates ways in which fast growth small-to-medium enterprises (FGSMEs) measure firm performance. This investigation, involving 21 interviews with 18 companies, revealed that FGSMEs seem to adopt a multi-level approach involving different sources and contexts to performance measurement. Apart from the application of standard financial performance measures such as profits and growth, FGSMEs also utilize measures of customer satisfaction, attainment of industry awards, receipt of client reports, website popularity, number and quality of successful innovations adopted, objective employee performance indices, and staff retention. Founders highlight the importance of providing employees with flexible environments and career opportunities as a way to reduce churn. These organizational characteristics signal non-financial benefits and incentives of working in these firms to potential employees and customers. These findings are in accord with extant literature and the balanced scorecard perspective, advocating associations between performance measurement systems and management strategies.

Suggested Citation

  • Caroline Swee Lin Tan & Kosmas X. Smyrnios, 2011. "How Do Australian Fast-Growth Small-To-Medium Enterprises Measure Performance?," Journal of Enterprising Culture (JEC), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 19(01), pages 41-60.
    • Handle: RePEc:wsi:jecxxx:v:19:y:2011:i:01:n:s0218495811000672
    DOI: 10.1142/S0218495811000672
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S0218495811000672
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1142/S0218495811000672?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. M. Willekens, 2002. "Financial Reporting? - It Simply Doesn't Work. Views on 'Corporate Reporting Wevisited'by J. Hegarty, C. Beckers and E. De Keraleneer," Review of Business and Economic Literature, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Review of Business and Economic Literature, vol. 0(1), pages 9-16.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Linus Chesoli Wekesa & Jackson Maalu & James Gathungu & Gituro Wainaina, 2023. "Mediating Effect of Competitive Strategy Between Entrepreneur Characteristics and the Performance of Non-timber Forest Product SMEs in Kenya," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 14(4), pages 4293-4317, December.

    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.

      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:wsi:jecxxx:v:19:y:2011:i:01:n:s0218495811000672. 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: Tai Tone Lim (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.worldscinet.com/jec/jec.shtml .

      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.