Типы стратегий и их влияние на российские МСП на примере индустрии кофеен

Nowadays, small and medium enterprises (SME) are considered by the vast majority of economists as the backbone of any successful well-diversified economy. They provide customers with goods and services, create new jobs, increase market competition and drive innovation. For example, in the European Union SMEs of the non-financial business sector account for 56,8% of value added and 66,4 % of total employment (European Union, 2018). In terms of innovation, while comparing SMEs to bigger companies it can be seen that small and middle enterprises remain very flexible and innovative, which confirms that small size is conducive to flexibility (Bartz,Winkler, 2016). All of this undoubtedly contributes to the economic growth and shapes overall development.
In Russia the share of SMEs is relatively limited – 22% of total employment (Federal Tax Service, 2019). Nevertheless, the importance and contribution of this sector to the Russian economy is steadily growing, due to the fact that this type of enterprises is considered critical to secure and promote further economic growth and boost the country’s competitiveness on global markets.
At the same time, SMEs remain vulnerable to external shocks, uncertainty and turbulent environments. The growing pressure of market competition from other SMEs and bigger companies, as well as a systematic lack of funding remain among the numerous factors that hinder SMEs’ development.
As a result, many SMEs are destined to fail due to their inability to adequately respond to these external threats, especially during times of crisis. Often that happens because of lack of resources, functional skills and management experience (Fatoki, 2014). Nevertheless, not all firms fail, some of them manage to outperform their competitors in the very same external environment.
What are the factors that ensure companies’ better performance? Some scholars argue that strategic behavior may be the determining factor dividing high-performing companies from their less successful competitors (Porter, 1985). In their study on strategic behavior, Tarkci et al. (2018) wrote that this is “searching for new strategic initiatives beyond the boundaries of current strategy”. But in terms of SMEs’ strategic approaches, the enterprises often avoid employing strategic tools and simply act according to the circumstances in the environment, employing tactical measures rather than following their strategies (Sharma, 2011). These measures are not aligned with strategic objectives and involve situational usage of the available resources. This does not help to acquire competitive advantages, i.e. the capabilities to use and combinate the resources in order to provide the customers
with value and which is difficult for the competitors to imitate. In turn, that negatively affects 5
companies’ performance and hinders the potential of the companies to grow and develop (Banker, Mashruwala, Tripathy, 2014).
The case of Russian SMEs is extremely interesting to study, as these entities tend to operate in more difficult and hostile environments than SMEs in developed market economies. “Due to the fact that SMEs in Russia often do not have enough resources, limiting their opportunities for growth, they must find new ways of doing business in order to be successful and compete in both domestic and global business” (Shirokova, Vega, Sokolova, 2013). Considering the fact that this topic remains largely understudied in the existing academic literature, there is a serious lack of understanding of the strategic behavior of Russian SMEs in local conditions. The results obtained in foreign research on various economies should be taken into consideration while examining the Russian case. However, they cannot be fully relied upon as the studies indicate a significant national factor, that implies that the results of the SMEs’ strategic choice may differ in accordance to the respective country. (Parnell, Long, Lester, 2015) That is why it is crucial to conduct a study on this topic in order to draw conclusions applicable to the realities of Russian business environment.
In this context, it is important to understand whether SMEs operating in Russia employ strategy in their activities, by what means they do so, how the strategic approaches or lack thereof are connected to their available resources, how the personal preferences of the owners and managers influence the strategic direction of the companies and whether these strategic measures actually contribute to improved performance against their competitors.
The coffee house industry was chosen for the empirical research. It is a fast-growing sector with high competition, relatively similar set of products and low entry barriers. At the same time, the applicability of generic strategies to the SMEs in the coffee house industry and the influence of their implementation is understudied. All considered, this sector seems to fit the objectives of this research as it will make possible to identify the patterns of SMEs’ strategic behavior in conditions that are easily comparable.
1.2 Research Gap
Existent literature lacks an in-depth analysis of the linkage between competitive strategies (cost-leadership, hybrid, differentiation) and performance of SMEs in the Russian market. Moreover, the manner in which SMEs choose which strategy to follow also remains grossly understudied. This topic is partially developed using the data obtained from SMEs in different countries, however, is it not proven whether these observations correspond to the reality of Russian SMEs. Therefore, the question arises on the applicability of the previous research results to the context of the Russian
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market. The lack of scientific research on this topic has direct implications on academic studies of SMEs in Russia, as well as prevents the practical application of such research by businesses on the local market.
1.3 Research questions and aims of the study
Research goal of the thesis is to understand the way the SMEs in Russia employ strategic methods and how strategic approaches are adapted to the Russian business environment as in the case of coffee house industry.
Research questions are the followings:
1. Do the Russian SMEs have clear strategic approaches?
2. How do these companies adopt strategies?
3. How do the chosen strategies influence the SMEs’ development? Do the companies with
the strategies perform and/or grow better?
Object: Small and middle enterprises in Russia operating in the coffee shop industry. Subject: Strategic behavior of SMEs, determining factors behind their choice of strategic approach and the link between the performance and strategy.
The study is based on the interviews of the owners and top managers of SMEs in the coffee house industry. This is a fast-growing industry with a homogenous set of products and similar average costs across the country, which facilitates a fairer analysis of companies’ similarities and differences in terms of their strategies, while controlling for industry-specific factors in the research conclusions.
All in all, the study is aimed at investigating the strategic approaches of SMEs in Russia, exploring new aspects of strategic choices made by the managers and business-owners. The chosen strategies are analyzed through the prism of their resources, competences and competitive advantages and their link to the financial results of the companies and their growth. The findings obtained as the result of the empirical study of the coffee houses in Russia include new insights in the sphere of SMEs’ strategic planning and the factors contributing to firms’ performance – the results that are able to contribute to the understanding of Russian SMEs’ operations from both theoretical and practical perspectives.