Dynamics of SME management methods: A prospective analysis using the SWOT model

Abstract

Today's economies are increasingly governed by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that are experiencing difficulties related to several factors, including management methods and very few studies to identify management methods using a forward-looking approach. This study analyzes the management methods of SMEs using the SWOT model through a qualitative approach of 16 interviews in 6 companies chosen for convenience. The data analysis grid made it possible to identify the characteristics of three dominant management methods (cognitive management, focused on commercial or financial information and consideration of non-financial information), the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the management method. The two logics (internal and external) of analysis concerned the dominant management tool or mode. Managers or managers of SMEs could find reasons for the failure of certain tools and the possibility of improving the use of existing tools. This tool could be tested in future research at the level of various small and medium-sized enterprises and a (longitudinal) case study could highlight its validation and appropriation. The study is purely qualitative and cannot claim to be generalized. Therefore, the SWOT model cannot claim to be the only prospective approach, a framework for analysing management methods. The appropriation of tools could be analyzed from the perspective of a world reinvented by technical and technological progress, including artificial intelligence.

Classification JEL : M40, M41, M49, M14.

Paper type: Empirical Research