Monitoring the organizational environment in small businesses: case studies in the metalworking sector and technology-based companies in the central region of the state of São Paulo

This study aims to describe how small businesses monitor competitive environments as an initial step toward the formulation of business strategies. In today’s increasingly volatile and uncertain competitive climate, it is essential to know and monitor the competitive environment in which an organization operates, as a way to reduce uncertainty and ensure long-term survival. Do small enterprises known for their lack of financial resources and qualified personnel fail to monitor their environment? Do they not use the “best practices” used by big enterprises and widely disseminated through academic studies? Such issues led the research. In this article the research method used case studies, in which four owner-managers were interviewed. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed using the Content Analyze Method. The results show that the main General Environment variables are Economic and Legal-political, and the main Specific Environment variables are competitors, costumers and substitute products