Configurations of Strategic Capabilities and SME Performance: An Exploratory Study of the Influence of National Context

A consequence of the globalization of economic activities is that it allows SMEs from different countries to be aware of how companies with which they compete behave and to have access to the same information and the same resources. Does this mean that companies tend to deploy similar strategic capabilities and, consequently produce comparable performances? In order to answer this question, we must consider the national environment and the ecosystem in which companies operate, the laws of each country and where the resources and barriers are located, as well as their specific cultural elements. To understand the influence of the national environment on strategic capabilities and the performance of SMEs, we compared information for three groups of SMEs located in different national environments, that is, Canada, France, and Mexico. Our results shows that it is mainly through configurations of strategic capabilities that the influence of national context makes itself felt, suggesting that some cultural and institutional contexts could be more favorable to the development of certain types of configurations.