Corporate visioning : a cross comparison between SMEs in Scotland and Sweden

Abstract

The business environment of today is characterised as both dynamic and complex, and many corporations face fierce competition on all fronts. To deal with strategic planning in this businesses environment has become difficult and visioning has been argued to be one approach forward. Numerous prescriptive models on how to develop visions have identified in the literature, but studies on how corporations actually develop visions are few. This study therefore aims to describe the process of how small and medium sized firms develop visions.

This study compares small and medium sized firms in Scotland and Sweden on how they developed their visions. The study adopted a survey methodology where 210 firms of different sizes were contacted in each country. The response rate was 24,3% in Scotland and 47,6 % in Sweden.

The main findings of this study are that the process of developing visions was rather diverse, some firms used short process, whereas in other firms the vision developed over time. In general it was an emergent process. The firms used many of the techniques and looked at factors found in the management literature, but maybe not in the way as prescribed by vision methodologies. In general the vision process was leader driven or developed by top management, but in some cases it was developed by a wider involvement. Few differences could be found between how Scottish and Swedish firms develop their visions, except that the Swedish firms to a higher degree had a developed vision. The major finding of this study is that the bigger the firm the more likely they are to have developed a vision, used management techniques and had wider involvement in the process.