Assessing the SMEs’ Competitive Strategies on the Impact of Environmental Factors: A Quantitative SWOT Analysis Application

Abstract

Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat (SWOT) analysis is an established methodology for assisting the formulation of strategy. This paper proposes a new quantified SWOT analytic method incorporated with the vote-ranking method. The indices of SWOT are voted, weighted and quantified to assess the competitive strategy, from top to the bottom, meanwhile the total weighted scores method will be used to get the best strategy alternatives. The competitive strategies of the Taiwanese Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the Environmental Management Systems (EMS) are taken as a case study, where eighteen certificated ISO9000 or ISO14000 auditors (or lead auditors) are invited to establish a decision group. Under the impact of environmental factors, the results show that company's image and profitability is the most important strategy for SMEs within the global markets. Lastly, Taiwanese SMEs apperceive the significance of EMS and also recognize the importance to survive within the diversified competing market environment, whereas they need to build up its environmental management that has to suit the EMS specification and attention. The findings are also applicable for other developing countries within the global markets or barriers.