Strategy Perception and Implementation on Less Developed Business Ecosystems Micro and Small Enterprises: The Service Sector of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace

Abstract

This article aims to find out how micro and small enterprises on a less developed regional business ecosystem perceive and implement some of the fundamental dimensions of business strategy. We analyze 16 critical strategic concepts and construct a strategy perception and implementation index consisting of 16 corresponding queries. We then present the findings of field research conducted in micro and small enterprises in the service sector of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace region in Greece. The results of the strategy perception an implementation index suggest that the “physiologies” of these firms are adjacent to each other and, as expected, these firms record similar scores and share common attributes. These results also point to an explicit — although not strong — tendency of these firms to transform their strategic perception and implementation into more systematic methodologies that seem to approach the benchmark set by the relevant literature. However, a long distance still exists between the actual perception and implementation of these firms and the standards set by the corresponding literature on the subject.

Keywords: Small business strategy, Strategic management, Less developed business ecosystems, Strategy perception and implementation index, Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, Stra.Tech.Man approach