Strategizing in Micro and Small Enterprises: A Practice-Based Perspective

Abstract

This study explores how micro and small enterprises (MSEs) strategize through everyday business practices. Unlike traditional models that focus on formal planning and predictive control, MSEs work under unpredictable conditions and severe resource constraints. As a result, they need more flexible and context-sensitive approaches. Using the Strategy-as-Practice (SaP) and effectuation theory as the main theoretical frameworks, this study shows that strategy is not a static plan but a set of socially and materially embedded practices that are implemented through everyday activities. Based on 25 semi-structured interviews with MSEs’ decision-makers, this qualitative study employs a theory-informed thematic analysis to explore how strategic actions in MSEs are formed, adjusted and enacted in practice. The findings indicate that MSEs navigate among multiple strategic logics in response to evolving circumstances, using planning where possible, adapting in response to feedback and uncertainty, and improvising under time pressure. Rather than treating these logics as mutually exclusive, MSEs pragmatically combine them in context-specific ways. This hybrid strategy is not a theoretically contradictory combination, but rather a practical approach developed in specific contexts and rooted in the firm’s environmental judgments, routine practices and experiential knowledge. This study thus shows how MSEs can deal with the complexity of strategic decision-making in a pragmatic way, and provides practical implications into strategic resilience under real-world constraints.