Strategic Planning in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in Sweden

Abstract: Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) constitute an important part of the national economies. In order to be able to survive and compete with large businesses, SMEs have to actively plan their future. This research qualitatively examines strategic planning practises in SMEs in Sweden, a yet unexplored country in this matter, in order to identify their extent and understand their nature. For this purpose, thorough review of the existing literature has been done first in order to build a theoretical framework for this research. This framework consists of seven variables related to strategic planning - its importance, time horizon, nature, formalisation, content, toolbox and follow-ups. Subsequently, in-depth interviews with six Swedish SMEs were conducted in order to collect empirical data. The conclusions drawn upon analysing the data suggest more maturity in the strategic planning practices of Swedish SMEs as compared to the currently held theoretical discourse.