Strategic management is part of every business and constitutes an important path to successful business operations. Managers perceive, understand, and implement strategic management in different ways. A study of Guatemala’s small retail businesses offers an opportunity to examine the decision-making process within a developing nation. This study investigates how managers in forty Guatemalan businesses practice strategic management. Whether the business managers are proactive or reactive in their decisions, they all recognize strategic management as an integral business activity. Two types of businesses, service retail and product retail businesses, are used as the unit of analysis in this research project.
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