Strategic management includes many topics, just you have to search for the latest articles/research papers that are made in this field and notice the variables, their dimensions/indicators, and how they are related to each other.

Olatide, the strategic orientation and internationalisation aspects of SMEs have recently attracted a range of scholarly focus and attention, not least from myself and others. As a partial attempt to help inform some of your thinking on these aspects, may I point you in the direction of the following peer-reviewed and published papers:

Mendy, J., & Rahman, M. (2020). Supporting SMEs’ internationalisation through a deeper understanding of human and technology barriers. Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance, 6(4), 205-226.

Mendy, J., Rahman, M. & Bal, P. M. (2019) ‘Using the ‘Best-fit’ Approach to Investigate the Effects of Politico-economic and Social Barriers on SMEs’ Internationalisation in an Emerging Country Context: Implications and future directions’, Thunderbird International Business Review, 62(2), 199-211.

Mendy, J. (2019) ‘Demystifying Misted Mirrors to Investigate Emerging People Issues in SMEs: Implications for Strategic Change’ Strategic Change Journal Special Issue on ‘Supporting Creating Shared Value’ (expected publication date – January 2020) – Vol. 29 No. 2, 1099-1697.

Mendy, J. (2019) ‘Supporting Creating Shared Value: Including Local and Global Clusters of Staff Resistance to Strategic SME Restructuring’, Strategic Change Journal Special Issue on ‘Supporting Creating Shared Value’, DOI: 10.1002/jsc.2257, Vol. 28, No 2, pp. 157 – 161.

Rahman, M. and Mendy, J. (2018) ‘Evaluating People-related Resilience and Non-Resilience Barriers of SMEs’ Internationalisation: A developing country perspective’, International Journal of Organisational Analysis, 27, 2, pp. 225 – 240.

Mendy, J. & Rahman, M. (2018) ‘Application of HRM’s Universal Model: an examination of People vs Institutions as Barriers of Internationalization for SMEs in a Small Developing Country’, Thunderbird International Business Review, Vol. 61, 2, pp. 363 – 374.

Mendy, J. & Hack-Polay, D. (2018) ‘Learning from failure: A study of failed enterprises of self-employed African migrants in the UK’, DOI: 10.1108/JSBED-11-2017-0332, ISSN 1462-6004, Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 25, 2, pp. 330-343.

All best.

Strategic containment and its role in small and medium-sized interprises through the interactive role of strategic ambidexterity

My suggestion on Strategic Management is for you to chech the work of Gordon Greenley.

Directly answering your question:

Small businesses are normally too interested in short-term goals. But, every small businessmen tend to think naturally about the future of their businesses. So, as a natural reaction, they tend to thing strategically even though they do not acknowledge this as a professional area.

All the best,

Adierson

Sí adaptan pero orientado a corto plazo, si tienen sueños, y saben en qué están trabajando y tiene su cultura su tradiciones, como la operan, existen muchos trabajos científicos en tesis, pero si quieres aplicativos tendrías que cuál es la ayuda del gobierno a las microempresarios de zonas rurales, ayudas de ONGs, ...

Strategic orientation has several domains, for example market orientation, entrepreneurial orientation, learning orientation, innovation orientation...... so, I think that strategic orientation has high affects on micro business. I'm interested about this topic and I'm working now about it. So, I need your help…

Almost all MSME are driven by theory of effectuation

(PDF) Effectuation: Elements of Entrepreneurial Expertise (researchgate.net)

(PDF) Effectuation, an emerging theory of entrepreneurship – towards a mature stage of the development (researchgate.net)

It would be very difficult to imagine strategic thinking at that level as the focus is usually in livelihood and survival. The founders may not even envisage the business future beyond their own life span as they would expect their children to doo far better in life. I suggest you talk to a few MSME founders to really understand their mindset and business orientation.

However, there is a huge possibility for a regular entrepreneur to come and aggregate similar MSMEs onto a single platform to improve market reach and sustainability. This can be considered as a strategic intervention and would be interesting to study. A new form of business called FPO which was formally introduced in India works this way. This is similar to a cooperative but functions more like a corporate business. Please explore this space as well. A lot of research is being done here. You may follow prof. Amar Nayak

Dear Olatide:

The internalization of small companies is a very big and interesting subject in these times. As far as I know, in Deusto University in Spain there is a professor, Iñaki Peña (PhD), who does research on this.

Regards, hope it helps

Gustavo Concari

Olatide Ale.

Although this is not my field of study (at least not directly), I spent some time thinking about your question.

In my understanding, when I understand that strategic orientation is a determining factor for the performance of innovative activities to produce positive results for the company (See Ozkaya et al., 2015) and that related to the principles that guide the management decision making of a firm, as well as the interaction with the market where it operates and the configuration of its resources, I think that an answer to the question is yes.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167811615000051?via%3Dihub

So, considering the reality, especially the culture of these companies, I understand that the strategic orientation reflects the deeply rooted beliefs and values in each company, in its case especially the small ones.

Well, I wish you success in your research.

I will suggest - read and if possible do some case studies on Internationalisation of small businesses - read on micro businesses that have made it big? factors that have helped them? challenges ? How they over came those? and most imprtantly how have they sustained i.e. how long have been they able to sustain there interantionalisation?

This initial studies will help you understand the factors that you wish to take for your studies.

I will strongly suggest dont only do literature reiview for initial screening. try contacting some micro businesses that have gone international - this will give you good insight.

All the best!

I would recommend reading the following article:

- Johan Frishammar & Svante Andersson (2009) The overestimated role of strategic orientations for international performance in smaller firms, J Int Entrep Volume 7, pp. 57–77. DOI 10.1007/s10843-008-0031-9