Strategic Behavior Analysis of Small Business in Brazil

Over recent years, small businesses have been the target of public and private investment in Brazil due to the appreciation of their economic and social impact. The growth of small businesses in Brazil has stimulated a demand for greater knowledge and a broader understanding of their peculiarities. Hence, this paper aims to propose a framework for analyzing the strategic behavior for small businesses. To test the suitability of this analytical framework, qualitative research was conducted based on descriptive and exploratory case studies involving three small companies in the construction sector in the Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil. The results show that: (i) based on the proposed analytical structure it was possible to identify the idiosyncrasies and the conflicts between strategy, structure and processes in such firms; (ii) the strategic behavior of the firms is not stable, since they demonstrate the ability to change the prevailing strategic behavior based on strategic decisions that reinforce the strategic typologies studied and; (iii) it is possible to identify opportunities to strengthen certain strategic behavior of firms.