TITLE:
SME Growth in a Recession: What Does a Growing Business Tell?
AUTHORS:
Milan Gyanwali
KEYWORDS:
SMEs, Business Growth, Recession, Action Research
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Business and Management,
Vol.8 No.1,
December
24,
2019
ABSTRACT: This article talks about growing small businesses in a recession and examines management strategies that made the company
grow. Recessionary periods are accepted tough for small and medium enterprises
(SMEs) to survive and grow, yet some do. SME performance is discussed
associating with different factors including barriers, business characteristics,
owner-manager lifestyle and networks.
Prior studies have a significant contribution in exploring aggregate SME growth
phenomena, but there is a little understanding of how SMEs grow in the
recessionary periods. This study used a pluralist methodology with the
participant action research as a primary approach, case study as a design and mix-method strategy to collect and analyse data. The
research is dominant by qualitative research where such data were collected
from a series of informal interviews and observation.
Similarly, quantitative data such as business records and financial information
were gathered from primary and secondary sources. The case study firm
implemented two management strategies: learning in the organisation and restructuring the organisation to
achieve growth during the recession of 2008-2009. Even though the precise
impact of these strategies is challenging to establish, both learning and restructuring strategies were making the firm grow in the recession of
2008-2009. Since SMEs operate in a context, any “ready-to-use” and “one-size-fits-all”
strategies and advice do not help individual businesses grow. This paper will
be of interest to all the people who are involved in making the SMEs grow in
recessionary periods.