Competitiveness of SMEs: The influence of entrepreneur's characteristics and firm's operational strategies. Case study of Egypt

The purpose of the research is to assess the influence of the entrepreneur's characteristics and strategies on the Egyptian firm's status of competitiveness. Moreover, almost all of the existing literature and empirical studies relating to SMEs issues have been staged in developed countries. Hence, the importance of testing the entrepreneurial characteristics and the operational strategies as associated with the firms' competitiveness in a developing country arises.; The paper raises the following research questions: (1) What operational strategies are associated with more competitive SMEs? (2) What are an Entrepreneur's characteristics that are associated with more competitive SMEs? and (3) In more competitive forms, to what extent do the entrepreneur's characteristics vary as the operational strategies differ?; The study does not suggest a unique strategy or a panacea set of strategies that is associated with higher levels of competitiveness. Typically, Egyptian Entrepreneurs do not adopt a formal or a sophisticated approach to develop their strategies. Pressures to survive today's economic slow-down do not overwhelm visionary entrepreneurs to follow tactics pursued by hit-and-run competitors of today. Sustainable competitive SMEs envisage a balanced approach to the diversity of operational strategies and internal systems. Firms are still required to account for both efficiency and innovation, to compete in tomorrow's global economy, even if this does not get reflected in their today's level of competitiveness.; The study demonstrates that sharing decision making process with the management team is associated with higher levels of competitiveness. A decision that is made without having the entrepreneur as the sole contributor is more likely to benefit from the synergetic impact of diverse experiences and a wider knowledge-base that feeds into the organisational knowledge.; The entrepreneurial orientation of competitive entrepreneurs has been mainly reflected in their capacity of creating a business and constantly insisting of keeping it alive and making it grow. To be able to create changes within the surrounding environment, it is indispensable for the entrepreneur to take the risk to exist in the market in the first place, to invest time and money in what others consider a lost cause, to be proactive in approaching and growing a business and to be innovative in packaging a novel introduction to well-position himself/herself in the market. Should the entrepreneur fail in bringing in novelty into the market, he/she is bound to lose the ‘real’ benefits of business. Bringing in such novelty is taking up a first-mover approach. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...