Perceptions on Business Strategy of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises. Paper delivered at the Auckland, New Zealand

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine how the perceptions of employees could have an influence in business strategy. This paper critically reviews the literature pertaining to perceptions and attitudes. Perception involves a sophisticated thinking process, starting from obtaining data from the external environment, analysing, and converting it through the cognitive process. The result of this process may vary among individuals. People’s perceptions of reality have greater influence on their behaviour than reality itself. The significance of this paper is that it is important for SMEs in Lao PDR in order to develop more understanding about the influence of employees’ perceptions on the outcome of business strategy. The findings show strong evidence that supports the relationship between employees’ perceptions about strategy and business performance. Employees’ perceptions are important and cannot be ignored. Further results demonstrated that employees who had some interest in business strategy accounted for 37%, those with a moderate interest in strategy were at 42%, and those who were very interested in strategy represented at 16%. Some recommendations are given at the end of the paper before the conclusions section