Globalising Environmental Problems and SMEs’ Survival Strategies: Perspectives from a Developing Country

Cost leadership, product differentiation, or delivery time is traditionally chosen as a competitive strategy (Dess and Davis 1984; Miller 1988; Chen 2002b; Porter 1980, 1991; Porter and van der Linde 1995). Today, the integration of environmental problems with trading has worked as a driving force to formulate strategies of survival for small-to-medium size enterprises (SMEs), as most developing countries are now members of WTO (World Trade Organization). When SMEs in developing countries face rapid challenges arising from globalisation of environmental problems, they need to choose appropriate survival strategies. In this paper we employ a method of case study to examine the factors affecting the choice of survival strategies adopted by SMEs and the major contents of such strategies.