THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FIRM SIZE AND HIGH PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN PAKISTANI SMEs

This study is concerned with the relationship between firm size and High Performance Management Practices (HPMP). The study was conducted in the context of Small & Medium-size Enterprises (SMEs) in the service and manufacturing sector in a Pakistani context, more specifically within Karachi. The primary data was collected through a survey of HPMP and as such the study is quantitative in nature. For the purpose of this study, a SME is defined as an organisation employing between 20 and 250 employees with a small organisation employing 20-100 employees and a medium sized organisation employing 101 -250 employees. The target population of the study consisted of SMEs operating in the city of Karachi, Pakistan. Stratified random sampling of 703 firms was applied to collect data from two stratums i.e. manufacturing and service-sector SME. Of these firms, 357 SMEs (50.78 percent response rate) accepted the invitation to fill out the survey questionnaire. An independent-sample t-test test was employed to see whether group means of firm size are significantly different in relation to prevalence of HPMP. The firm size was used as independent variables or grouping variable while HPMP as dependent variable. The overall results were mixed and partially supportive of a positive relationship between firm size and the adoption of HPMP.