INVESTIGATING THE ROLE OF STRUCTURAL FACTORS IN THE PERFORMANCE OF SMES BY USING STRUCTURAL EQUATIONS TECHNIQUE

Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) have plenty of competitive advantages compared to large companies. They are more capable of being original and innovative, and due to their flexibility, they can respond better to environmental changes and satisfy their customers’ emerging needs. They also have more opportunities to redesign or alter and improve their management tools and information systems. Moreover, the employees can improve their expertise in novel fields. Due to the significance of SMEs in countries’ economies, a great number of studies and investigations have been conducted on them. According to the previous studies of the researcher and review of the literature, relying on the three-dimensional model, three groups of structural, content, and environmental factors were identified as the most important factors affecting the performance of SMEs in Semnan province in Iran. Nevertheless, owing to the wide area of research and also in order to achieve better results, this study has focused only on investigating the role of structural factors in the performance of SMEs in Semnan province. The research method used in this study in terms of target is applied and in terms of data collection is analytical. The method used for data analysis is the technique of structural equations of second rank factor analysis . The results of the research revealed that structural factors affect SMEs performance to the amount of 3.99