Strategy, Structure, CEO Personality and Performance in Small Firms

A study of 97 small firms was conducted to establish the impact of strategy, structure, decision making style, and chief executive personality on performance. Good growth and profit performance relative to the competition seemed to be associated with Innovative product-market strategies; more proactive, analytic, and future-oriented decision making style; more extensive delegation of authority and professional management; and greater CEO flexibility. Findings varied systematically in comparing groups of small versus medium sized firms, those in dynamic versus stable environments, and those that delegated much authority to lower levels versus those that did not.