DO STRATEGIES IMPROvE SME PERFORMANCE? AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF JAPAN AND SRI LANkA

The relationship between business strategy and organizational performance has been a subject of growing interest in the field of strategic management. Despite this trend, there has been little attention given to a comparative analysis of this relationship between two different economies. The aim of this study is to empirically investigate the performance differences and business strategy orientation of small and medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) in two Asian economies. Data for the research were obtained from a survey of SMEs in manufacturing industry in Japan and Sri Lanka. Results indicate that the performance of SMEs varies with the choice of strategy orientation that owner-managers adopt. The findings and implications of this study would be useful to owners and managers of SMEs, while contributing to the literature on SMEs as well.