Small Firms' Output Determination: An Attitude Problem

Abstract

DR ALAN HANKINSON is with the Portsmouth Polytechnic Business School, England. This longitudinal investigation is an examination of output determination in a sample of 60 small engineering firms in the East Dorset and West Hampshire regions of England during the period of 1979-88. The work is a critical survey of the motivations behind output determination. The findings indicate disconcerting problems of output determination within the small firm of up to 100 employees but especially those in mechanical engineering compared with electrical engineering. As a result of these non-optimum attitudes to output determination, financial returns tended to remain disappointing for the small engineering firm. The author suggests that firms must appraise and monitor their performances more purposefully. Output must be regarded as an important aspect of marketing which the firm itself must control and not be regarded as an external factor beyond the firm's influence.

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