The role of contextual factors for manufacturing strategy formulation in SMEs

Paper in proceeding, 2013

This paper presents an empirical study of the formulation of manufacturing strategies in three small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises. The study investigated the relationship between manufacturing strategy formulation and contextual factors. The investigated factors included competitors, markets, suppliers, ownership, leadership style, and organisational culture. Competitors and suppliers were closely related to the result of the manufacturing strategy formulation, while, ownership, leadership style and organisational culture seemed to be related to the overall formulation and the way the companies did work with manufacturing strategy formulation. Market conditions might be the initiative to formulate manufacturing strategies, but seemed not to be influencing that overall manufacturing strategy formulation.