ABSTRACT
Today’s operating market conditions, given their ever-growing level of turbulence and complexity, are likely to be profoundly impactive and strategically more demanding on SMEs than ever before. Acceptably, regardless of the taxonomical complications relating to how SMEs may be classified and defined or the tensions and contradictions arising from efforts to resolves these, there is no escaping the stark reality that many SMEs (especially high-growth SMEs) are increasingly exposed to meta-marketing pressures which large organizations have had to grapple with for a long time. Essentially, a recourse to ‘smallness’ is no longer a sufficient base to presume that SMEs are insulated from the demands, expectations and obligations that might arise from the wider macro-marketing system. Paradoxically, much of what had hitherto been explained away as extra-competition pressures (e.g. environmentalism) are increasingly finding their way into the mainstream strategic processes of companies and, accordingly, proving to be sources of competitive strengths. For example, Anita Roddick grew her The Body Shop chain from a value-base that was unconventional at the time – that is, an ethical stance of non-animal testing of her cosmetic products (see Box 23.1).
