Management summary Research study „We survived this! What managers could learn from SMEs who successfully navigated the Greek economic crisis“
Small and medium size enterprises in both business to business and consumer markets are particularly vulnerable to economic downturns. Concentrating on the Greek economic crisis, one of the toughest and most prolonged on a global scale, the present research sheds light on both anthropocentric and business-centric factors that helped SMEs survive, therefore, providing a valuable survival manual. It is quantitative research and consists of two studies. In total 250 SMEs were included in the sample of the first survey. Per findings of the two studies performed under the given economically intense conditions, it is evidenced that the right answer to survival rests upon: (a) the entrepreneurs’ personality traits and skills that affect the market and entrepreneurial orientations of SMEs, (b) the adoption of such orientations that keep impacting the firms’ performance, and finally (c) the implementation of strategy relevant to reaching higher quality standards for products and services, combined with tactics relevant to downsizing, marketing actions, extroversion, and financial management.
Target groups of stakeholders: academics, entrepreneurs, managers, policy makers
Citation: Kottika, E., Özsomer, A., Rydén, P., Theodorakis, I.G., Kaminakis, K., Kottikas, K.G., & Stathakopoulos, V. (2020). We survived this! What managers could learn from SMEs who successfully navigated the Greek economic crisis. Industrial Marketing Management, 88 (July), 352-365.