Competitive advantage in small to medium-sized enterprises

Although the concept of competitive advantage has become the subject of increasing research, the majority of research has focused on competitive advantage in large companies with less attention being paid to smaller firms. Building upon previous research into competitive advantage,this paper reports the findings of a qualitative study that investigated how competitive advantage is assessed,created and maintained in small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The paper shows that,while some of the findings from previous research are applicable in an SME context,overall SME owner-managers' perceptions and evaluations of competitive advantage differ from the models of competitive advantage prescribed for large companies.