Title: Why do Indian SMEs fail and succeed?: insights from auto-component industry

Authors: Dilip Nandkeolyar; Neeraj Pandey; Ravi Kiran; Shailendra Kumar

Addresses: Indira Institute of Management, Pune, Maharashtra, India ' National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE), Mumbai, Maharashtra, India ' Thapar University, Patiala, Punjab, India ' Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India

Abstract: A cursory look at data on small and medium enterprises (SME) in India shows that large numbers of SMEs are failing. This study found fundamental reasons behind this failure besides providing insights into what makes few SMEs successfully manage competition. The data was collected from 517 auto-component manufacturing units in large automotive SME clusters of India. The research highlighted the key role of business planning in Indian SMEs. The SMEs need to proactively manage innovation and quality, improve financial agility, navigate change process and assess global impact. The study also looks at the role of benchmarking, negative attribution and buyer-supplier relationship in sustaining competitiveness by SMEs in post-WTO (World Trade Organization) era.

Keywords: small and medium enterprises; SME; benchmarking; marketing; business planning; auto-component; manufacturing; clusters; India.

DOI: 10.1504/IJICBM.2017.085389

International Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management, 2017 Vol.15 No.1, pp.82 - 99

Received: 09 Feb 2016
Accepted: 09 Aug 2016
Published online: 25 Jul 2017 *

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