The Influence Prism in SMEs: The Power of CEOs' Perceptions on Technology Policy and Its Organizational Impacts

Louis A. Lefebvre, Robert Mason and Élisabeth Lefebvre
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Louis A. Lefebvre: Department of Industrial Engineering, École Polytechnique, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3T 1J7
Robert Mason: Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, 44106
Élisabeth Lefebvre: Department of Industrial Engineering, École Polytechnique, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3T 1J7

Management Science, 1997, vol. 43, issue 6, 856-878

Abstract: The research proposes a model, which relates the following variables: (a) the CEO's perceptions of the environment, (b) the strategic business orientation, scanning, and structural characteristics, (c) technology policy, (d) realized innovative efforts of the firm, and (e) measures of firm performance. The empirical data from small manufacturing enterprises (SMEs) that share a common economic and industrial environment show that CEOs' perceptions of external environment---and not objective measures---are key significant issues with respect to technology policy formulation and enactment in SMEs and its subsequent organizational impacts. In particular, perceived environmental hostility and dynamism are shown to have specific and differing moderating roles on the form and strength of the relationships between technology policy and its determinants and between technology policy and realized innovative efforts. Furthermore, a more aggressive technology policy leads to greater realized innovative efforts, which in turn are positively related to export performance and, to a lesser extent, to financial performance.

Keywords: strategic management of technology; small firms; strategy enactment; perceptions of the external environment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1997
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:43:y:1997:i:6:p:856-878

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