Benchmarking on managerial practices: a tool for SMEs

Purpose – Literature and practice highlight the need to stimulate processes of qualitative growth in SMEs. The aim of the research presented in this paper is to identify a type of benchmarking and a benchmarking tool which can support the qualitative growth of these companies. Design/methodology/approach – During the study, literature review and empirical research had been carried out and further information was gathered by means of workshops and interviews to experts. Finally, the achieved results were tested on a sample of eight Italian SMEs. Findings – Approaches to benchmarking were reviewed and classified; synthetic benchmarking based on managerial practices was chosen as the most appropriate approach to stimulate improvement and qualitative growth in SMEs; moreover a tool for synthetic benchmarking on managerial practices tool was developed. Practical implications – The research has practical implication; it provides SMEs with adequate tool and methodology able to support the development of management system. The tool is able to allow SMEs to learn best managerial practices, assess itself with respect to these practices and at the same time understand what must be done to carry out improvement. Originality/value – The developed tool has a general validity, it does not consider particular situation, but if some codified practices are not applicable to a specific company, it is possible to rule out these practices without compromising the effectives of the tool.