Strategic Management of family SMEs: Experience from Belgium

In spite of the vast literature on ‘strategy,’ there is no consensus on a common delineation of the term. Similarly, although the need for strategic flexibility is acknowledged by the literature, there is little research that analyses the nature and direction of strategic change, especially where family firms are concerned. This chapter proposes building blocks for the formulation and implementation of strategy. A clear definition of competitive strategy is distilled from various perspectives on strategy available in the literature. Finally, three categories of strategic change are defined, namely Restructuring, Expansion and Transformation. Case study research of five Flemish family firms shows that none of the strategic change scenarios is naturally preferable to the others, but that each scenario offers its own set of advantages and risks.status: publishe