Strategic Orientation, Management Characteristics, and Performance: A Study of Spanish SMEs

This paper analyzes from a resource-based view the management characteristics of Spanish small and medium enterprises (SMEs) according to their strategic orientation and the consequences in terms of firm performance and business efficiency. The typology of strategies formulated by Miles and Snow has important implications for management, because depending on the strategic orientation adopted—defender, prospector, or analyzer—the firm can emphasize to a great extent some aspects of management, such as technological position, innovation, organizational design, and human resource management. Moreover, these aspects of management can largely determine firm performance and business efficiency. A sample of 1,351 Spanish SMEs provided the data for an empirical test of these issues. The results confirm the expected relationships, revealing, on the one hand, significant differences between prospector and defender SMEs regarding the key factors on which they base their management characteristics and, on the other hand, the different influences that each strategic orientation has on firm performance.