Apostolaki, E; (2008) Strategy development and implementation amongst SMEs in construction: A case study approach of Greek firms. Doctoral thesis , UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

The strategy development in the SMEs has recently received attention however the majority of those researches are either judging the strategy or the lack of it, or trying to apply one of the existent strategy theories. All of them result to some level of failure. It is argued here that in order for any theoretical application to be fruitful, an understanding of their actual practice is necessary, so this research seeks to track the process of strategy development in small to medium enterprises in construction (SMEC). Based on semi-structured interviews, it tried to capture both managers' perception regarding strategy development, and the real processes, to secure some practical use of the findings for the firms. The outcomes recognise the fundamental distinction between SMEC seeking growth and those seeking survival with sufficient returns and identify a common pattern in strategic vision development, as issue recognition and respond based on intuition and research, affected mainly by local networks. They also indicate the importance of implicit and unconscious processes, other than the manager's perception, related to the firms' rate of growth and based on the firms' attitude towards change in relation to its current capabilities. Stakeholders of those processes are also identified.

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