Managerial Growth in Small and Medium Enterprises: Performance Measurement as a key system supporting companies development

The rapidly evolving competitive environments, dictated by global competition, technological change and increasing product variety, are changing customers requirements. The literature has highlighted the fact that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have to improve their flexibility and times to gain competitive advantages. In the last few years Italian SMEs, particularly those located in the North-East regions, have undergone important changes in their industrial sectors; significant delocalization processes have been taking place and there have been developments in the technology of products and processes. Despite this, there was no a parallel development of organizational capability and difficulties in managing complexity have often been identified. This study has been carried out using a retrospective approach. Empirical evidence, gathered during our previous studies, has been used in order to investigate organizational capability in a group of Italian SMEs. The evolutionary path followed by these companies during their development is proposed. The key role played by a performance measurement system (PMS), as a potential system able to support managerial development in SMEs, is highlighted