Abstract
Within the small business community it is common sense that a small business is not simply a little big business, but a specific entity in its own right and thus, deserves specific attention. Moreover, focusing on the ‘typical’ small business is very likely to be misleading as the challenges that small businesses face are quite diverse and dependent on, for example, industry specifics, the characteristics of the entrepreneur or owner-manager, their personal goals, etc. In this comprehensive volume Mazzarol and Reboud explore the small business phenomenon from a strategic management perspective. Recognising the diversity of small businesses worldwide, they provide a multitude of answers to this book’s central question: namely, how a small business can tailor its strategic initiatives to its organisation so that these initiatives truly fit the owner-manager’s individual goals and the task environment in which the small business is active.
Despite the notion of strategy, two terms are central to the authors’ understanding of the small firm: innovation and entrepreneurship. Traditionally, the Anglo-American perspective on entrepreneurship has benefited much from the strategic management stream of the literature, while the European perspective on entrepreneurship has been influenced more by the Schumpeterian view and is rather focused on aspects of innovation. Here, two scholars from both traditions join forces and consequently both perspectives are merged, which results in an interesting contribution to the field of small business strategy.
Mazzarol and Reboud draw on a variety of methods to illustrate the strategy phenomenon in the small business context. The book contains rigorous and structured literature reviews, suggests a plethora of new frameworks to analyze small business strategy, and provides quantitative analyses of various phenomena such as the strategic management process, the resulting strategic options for small businesses, strategies to innovate successfully or the management of strategic networks and alliances. Seeing that quantitative research might be too abstract to grasp fully the phenomenon under investigation, the authors complement their analyses with a plethora of case studies from France and Australia which serve to illustrate these abstract concepts. Thus, the book is a rich resource for those interested in the field; readers will not only discover how far the field has progressed and which tools can be potentially employed, but will get a clearer picture of the status quo of small business strategy through this mixed-methods approach as well.
Based on this methodological approach, which is seen far too seldom in the literature, the book evolves around two primary concepts. First, taking up a process perspective that intends to lead to sustainable growth of the firm over time, the authors show how personal characteristics, new product ideas, alliances and strategic growth options all significantly shape the complex strategic process. Consequently, all need to be considered carefully to manage the small business successfully. Second, in order to control this process, Mazzarol and Reboud urge entrepreneurs and owner-managers to follow the so-called ‘strategic triangle’ as a guiding principle: that is, a chosen strategic direction needs to be aligned with the firm’s available resources, and at the same time the challenge has to be met regarding how the firm’s organisational configuration can be properly fitted to the firm’s resource base and the owner-manager’s strategic intent. Given that entrepreneurs or owner-managers follow different leadership styles, this results in a number of specific small-business planning responses which also take into account a firm’s environmental influences. The reader will find all these concepts described in great detail in this book.
All in all, there is much to be learned from this book. Practitioners will find a plethora of concepts to analyse where their firm actually stands and what the next logical steps could be to develop the business, while small business mentors and consultants will come across many concepts and tools to understand their clients better, and therefore will find it much easier to assist them in their strategic journey. Academics and scholars should use this book as a starting point for their own research projects on small business strategy, as the volume comprehensively covers the status quo of the research in this area. Admittedly, the 380-odd pages of this book are likely to ask too much, especially of the typical small business owner-manager who is stuck in their day-to-day business. Such readers are recommended to start with the book’s final chapter (‘Managing the Strategic Triangle’), which is an interesting read in itself, and from there on to gradually explore the topics that, given their current situation, might matter the most – be they innovation, strategic alliances or any other of the important factors shaping the strategic process.