An expert diagnosis system for the benchmarking of SMEs' performance

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show that benchmarking allows SMEs to improve their operational performance. Design/methodology/approach – The paper presents a fully implemented expert diagnostic system which evaluates on a benchmarking basis the performance of SMEs. Findings – The research results with hundreds of SMEs show that benchmarking allows them to improve their operational and financial performance thus confirming the usefulness of benchmarking for SMEs, especially since traditional performance models for large enterprises do not apply well to SMEs. Research limitations/implications – Based on data mining techniques, future work should allow us to significantly extend our knowledge on SMEs, and further improve our evaluation model of SME performance. Practical implications – Practitioners and researchers should pay more attention to benchmarking as a valuable performance evaluation tool, not only for large businesses, but for SMEs as well. Originality/value – The paper highlights the development and use of a benchmarking‐based “360‐degrees” performance evaluation system for SMEs.