Strategic grouping in a fragmented market: SMEs' strive for legitimacy
by Marc Dressler
International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business (IJESB), Vol. 32, No. 1/2, 2017

Abstract: Strategic positioning lays the foundation for sustainable competitive advantage and profitability. An ongoing scientific discourse on superior strategies and whether to position close or far from competitors reveals the need for additional research. This article reports on an empirical study assessing strategic behaviour and the resulting performance impact in a small business industry with high fragmentation - the German wine industry. Against expectations derived from resource dependency theory, strategic grouping of the surveyed wineries turned out to be dominated by broad scope and closeness to competitors. An inferior performance of product-centric profiling confirms the expected risk of 'stuck-in-the-middle' strategies.

Online publication date: Mon, 21-Aug-2017

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