Stakeholders and the Strategy Formation Process in Small and Medium Enterprises

Abstract

Martin Atkis is co-ordinator, center for management studies, Univeristy of Aberdeen, Scotland, and professor Julian Lowe is professor strategic Managment, Univerisity of Western England, Bristol, England. Strategic network are becoming increasingly recognised for theri potential to reduce transaction costs for fimrs. Networks are built on trust and it is therfore appropriate to consider partner in the network among the stakhodler in the firm. in this paper, data from an extensive survery of small firms in the united kingdom have been used to construct a measure of stakeholder involvment and there is very storng statistical evidence in favour of theoretical models which predct greater stakeholder involvment by firms who experience greater external turbulence, especially when that turbulence is measured in terms of changing technology.