Strategy development by SMEs for competitiveness: a review

TLDR: In this article, the authors identify the major areas of strategy development by SMEs for improving competitiveness of SMEs in globalised market and propose a research agenda to address these issues.

Abstract: Purpose – SMEs are considered as engine for economic growth all over the world. After the globalization of market, SMEs have got many opportunities to work in integration with large‐scale organizations. They cannot exploit these opportunities and sustain their competitiveness if they focus only on certain aspects of their functioning and work in isolation. This paper tries to identify the major areas of strategy development by SMEs for improving competitiveness of SMEs in globalised market.Design/methodology/approach – About 134 research papers, mainly from referred international journals are reviewed to identify thrust areas of research. On the basis of review, gaps are identified and research agenda is proposed.Findings – SMEs have not given due attention for developing their effective strategies in the past. They are localized in functioning. On export fronts SMEs face many constraints due to lack of resources and poor innovative capabilities. For sustaining their competitiveness, they have to benchmar...