ABSTRACT
The strategic management of SMEs is an area of increasing interest to researchers, not least because virtually all firms fall into this category. Indeed it is large firms that are arguably the aberration. Inter stratos surveys reveal the perceptions of SMEs' managers, usually owners, about various important aspects of strategy and how these perceptions have changed over time. Here we focus on three. First, the environment in which respondents operated, including how they performed in relation to other firms. Second, their reasons for undertaking overseas activity, or for not doing so (this section is based on responses to questions that were unique to the British survey). Third, the factors that were perceived as important for success.
