An exploratory research on change and performance in small and medium enterprises in Romania

Change is an underexplored topic among SMEs. Most studies are concerned with performance as the outcome of a company effort, but when performance is affected (during an economic crisis) it is interesting to investigate whether SMEs changed something in what they previously did. This exploratory research aims to identify what are the behaviors of SMEs in terms of change and performance. Data were collected using an online survey with a selfadministered questionnaire and were analyzed using cluster analysis. The initial results revealed the existence of three distinct groups of SMEs. The first group consists of companies that were not significantly affected by the economic crisis and therefore did not initiate strategic changes, being satisfied with the achieved status quo. The second group consists of companies highly affected, which initiated many changes but without any performance improvement. The third group consists of firms which registered high performance level and yet initiated changes constantly as a way to preserve future superior performance.