PERFORMANCE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BRAZILIAN SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES: AN RESOURCED-BASED-VIEW APPROACH

The objective of this study was to determine performance differences (growth) companies within a sector are higher than the performance differences between companies sectors. Based on the resource based view (RBV) were defined research hypotheses suggesting that the internal factors related to individual companies, exercised greater influence than the external factors (industry structure) in performance (growth) of these companies. Regarding methodology, the study characterized as a survey of secondary data from a sample of 328 small and medium size companies participating of DELOITTE EXAME SME Survey, Small and medium enterprises with the largest growth in Brazil in 2009. Analysis were prepared with descriptive statistics to analyze the sample characteristics and tests of statistical hypotheses. The results presented showed an heterogeneity in the distribution of firms by the various sectors, however, despite quantitative differences, growth rates were statistically identical. Statistical tests suggested acceptance of the hypothesis that external factors such as marketing and strategic positioning are the main causes of variation in performance of small and medium enterprises of the sample, rejecting the premise of RBV to explain the variation in performance for these companies