Fundamentals

Imagine a small bakery, early mornings filled with flour dust and the rhythmic clang of pans. For years, this bakery has thrived on hand-crafted goodness, but the owner, Sarah, often finds herself buried in paperwork after the ovens cool down. This scenario, repeated across countless small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), highlights a crucial point ● the heart of an SMB beats with passion and dedication, yet its arteries can get clogged with tasks that steal time from what truly matters ● growth and customer connection.

Unburdening Operations Through Automation

Automation, in its simplest form, represents a shift. It’s about moving away from repetitive, manual processes and embracing tools that handle these tasks automatically. Think of it as hiring a tireless, incredibly efficient assistant who never needs coffee breaks and always gets the job done. For Sarah’s bakery, this might mean implementing software to manage inventory, automatically track orders, or even schedule social media posts showcasing her delicious creations.

The immediate benefit? Sarah gets her evenings back, and her focus shifts from data entry to dreaming up new pastry masterpieces.

Time Recaptured, Value Amplified

Time, for any SMB, represents a non-renewable resource. Every hour spent on administrative drudgery is an hour lost on strategic planning, customer engagement, or product innovation. Automation directly addresses this scarcity. By automating tasks like invoicing, appointment scheduling, or basic customer service Meaning ● Customer service, within the context of SMB growth, involves providing assistance and support to customers before, during, and after a purchase, a vital function for business survival. inquiries, SMBs unlock significant chunks of time.

This newfound time isn’t just about working less; it’s about working smarter. It allows business owners and their teams to concentrate on activities that directly generate revenue and build lasting customer relationships.

Cost Efficiency Beyond the Obvious

The allure of cost reduction often headlines the automation conversation, and rightly so. Automation can significantly cut down on labor costs associated with manual tasks. However, the financial benefits extend far beyond payroll savings. Reduced errors in data entry, streamlined workflows, and optimized resource allocation Meaning ● Strategic allocation of SMB assets for optimal growth and efficiency. all contribute to a leaner, more profitable operation.

Consider a small e-commerce business. Automated inventory management prevents overstocking or stockouts, both of which tie up capital or lead to lost sales. Automated shipping label generation minimizes errors and speeds up delivery, enhancing customer satisfaction and potentially reducing shipping costs through optimized routing.

Scaling Smarter, Not Just Bigger

Growth is the lifeblood of any SMB, but unchecked expansion can lead to chaos. Automation provides a scalable backbone for growth. It allows SMBs to handle increasing workloads without proportionally increasing staff or overhead. As Sarah’s bakery gains popularity and online orders surge, automated order processing systems can seamlessly manage the increased volume.

This scalability is crucial for sustainable growth. It ensures that as the business expands, operational efficiency Meaning ● Maximizing SMB output with minimal, ethical input for sustainable growth and future readiness. remains intact, preventing growing pains from stifling progress.

Consistency and Reliability in Every Click

Human error is inevitable. Manual processes are prone to mistakes, whether it’s a typo in an invoice or a missed customer appointment. Automation injects consistency and reliability into business operations. Automated systems perform tasks with precision and repeatability, reducing errors and ensuring a uniform standard of quality.

For a service-based SMB, like a plumbing company, automated scheduling and dispatching software ensures that appointments are booked accurately, technicians are dispatched efficiently, and customers receive timely service updates. This consistency builds trust and reinforces a professional image.

Enhanced Customer Experiences, Naturally

In today’s competitive landscape, customer experience reigns supreme. Automation, surprisingly, can humanize customer interactions. By freeing up staff from mundane tasks, automation allows them to focus on providing more personalized and attentive customer service. Automated chatbots can handle basic inquiries, providing instant responses and freeing up human agents to address complex issues.

Automated email marketing can deliver targeted and timely communications, keeping customers engaged and informed. The result is a smoother, more responsive customer journey that fosters loyalty and positive word-of-mouth.

Automation empowers SMBs to reclaim their most valuable assets ● time and talent, redirecting them towards strategic growth and meaningful customer engagement.

Data-Driven Decisions, Intuition Amplified

Gut feeling has its place in business, especially in the early stages of an SMB. However, sustainable success requires data-driven decision-making. Automation inherently generates data ● data on sales trends, customer behavior, operational efficiency, and much more. Automated reporting and analytics tools transform this raw data into actionable insights.

Sarah, the bakery owner, can use sales data from her automated system to identify her best-selling items, optimize her baking schedule, and tailor her marketing efforts to maximize impact. Data empowers SMBs to move beyond guesswork and make informed decisions that drive growth and profitability.

Leveling the Playing Field, Competitively

SMBs often operate in the shadow of larger corporations with vast resources. Automation helps level the playing field. It provides SMBs with access to tools and capabilities that were once the exclusive domain of big businesses.

Cloud-based automation platforms are affordable and accessible, allowing even the smallest SMB to implement sophisticated systems for CRM, marketing, and operations management. This democratization of technology empowers SMBs to compete more effectively, innovate faster, and achieve growth that was previously unattainable.

Embracing Change, Securing the Future

The business landscape is in constant flux. Technological advancements, evolving customer expectations, and global market shifts demand adaptability. Automation is not a one-time fix; it’s an ongoing process of adaptation and improvement. SMBs that embrace automation position themselves for long-term resilience and success.

They become more agile, more efficient, and more responsive to change. For Sarah’s bakery, embracing automation is not about replacing the human touch; it’s about enhancing it, ensuring that her passion for baking can continue to flourish in a rapidly evolving world. It’s about securing the future, one automated task at a time.

Strategic Imperatives Automation For Smb Advancement

The narrative surrounding automation within small to medium-sized businesses frequently fixates on tactical gains ● reduced overhead, streamlined workflows, and the alleviation of manual burdens. While these operational enhancements are undeniably valuable, they represent merely the surface level of automation’s strategic potential. To truly appreciate the transformative power of automation for SMBs, one must examine its capacity to fundamentally reshape business strategy, foster competitive differentiation, and drive sustainable growth Meaning ● Sustainable SMB growth is balanced expansion, mitigating risks, valuing stakeholders, and leveraging automation for long-term resilience and positive impact. within dynamic market ecosystems.

Beyond Tactical Efficiency Strategic Reconfiguration

Automation, when viewed through a strategic lens, transcends its role as a mere efficiency tool. It becomes a catalyst for business model innovation Meaning ● Strategic reconfiguration of how SMBs create, deliver, and capture value to achieve sustainable growth and competitive advantage. and strategic realignment. Consider a boutique e-commerce retailer grappling with escalating customer service demands. Implementing a basic chatbot might address immediate query volume, a tactical improvement.

However, strategically leveraging AI-powered automation to personalize product recommendations, proactively resolve pre-purchase anxieties, and dynamically adjust pricing based on real-time demand signals represents a far more profound strategic shift. This approach transforms customer service from a cost center into a revenue-generating engine, fostering enhanced customer lifetime value Meaning ● Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV) for SMBs is the projected net profit from a customer relationship, guiding strategic decisions for sustainable growth. and competitive advantage.

Competitive Edge Through Intelligent Automation

In saturated markets, competitive differentiation Meaning ● Competitive Differentiation: Making your SMB uniquely valuable to customers, setting you apart from competitors to secure sustainable growth. becomes paramount for SMB survival and prosperity. Automation, when intelligently deployed, can serve as a potent differentiator. It enables SMBs to deliver superior customer experiences, offer customized products or services at scale, and respond with agility to evolving market demands ● capabilities traditionally associated with larger enterprises.

A regional logistics SMB, for instance, can leverage automation to optimize delivery routes in real-time, provide customers with granular shipment tracking updates, and offer predictive delivery timeframes with accuracy rivaling national players. This enhanced service precision, facilitated by automation, translates directly into a competitive advantage, attracting and retaining clients who prioritize reliability and transparency.

Data-Driven Agility Strategic Responsiveness

Strategic agility, the capacity to adapt swiftly and effectively to market shifts, is a critical determinant of SMB success in volatile business environments. Automation plays a pivotal role in fostering this agility by providing access to real-time data insights and enabling rapid operational adjustments. Automated analytics dashboards can monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) across various business functions, alerting SMB leaders to emerging trends, potential bottlenecks, or shifting customer preferences.

This data transparency empowers proactive decision-making. A restaurant chain, for example, can use automated sales data analysis Meaning ● Data analysis, in the context of Small and Medium-sized Businesses (SMBs), represents a critical business process of inspecting, cleansing, transforming, and modeling data with the goal of discovering useful information, informing conclusions, and supporting strategic decision-making. to identify underperforming menu items, adjust ingredient procurement strategies in response to supply chain disruptions, or dynamically modify staffing levels based on predicted customer traffic, ensuring optimal resource allocation and responsiveness to market dynamics.

Elevating Human Capital Strategic Focus

Concerns about automation displacing human labor often overshadow its potential to elevate the strategic contribution of human capital within SMBs. By automating routine, repetitive tasks, businesses liberate their employees from operational drudgery, allowing them to focus on higher-value activities that demand creativity, critical thinking, and interpersonal skills. This strategic reallocation of human resources can unlock innovation, enhance customer relationships, and drive strategic initiatives. A small marketing agency, by automating campaign performance reporting and data analysis, can empower its marketing strategists to dedicate more time to developing innovative campaign concepts, building deeper client relationships, and proactively identifying emerging market opportunities, thereby enhancing the agency’s strategic value proposition.

Scalability and Sustainable Growth Trajectory

Sustainable growth, a trajectory of expansion that is both profitable and operationally sound, represents a key strategic objective for most SMBs. Automation provides the infrastructural backbone for scalable growth, enabling businesses to manage increasing complexity and workload without incurring disproportionate increases in overhead or compromising service quality. Cloud-based automation platforms offer elasticity, allowing SMBs to scale their operational capacity up or down in response to fluctuating demand, ensuring cost-effectiveness and operational resilience. A rapidly expanding online education platform, for example, can leverage automated student onboarding processes, AI-powered personalized learning pathways, and automated assessment systems to accommodate a surge in student enrollment without straining its administrative resources or compromising the quality of its educational offerings, ensuring sustainable and scalable growth.

Strategic automation transcends mere operational improvement; it is a fundamental enabler of business model evolution, competitive advantage, and sustainable growth for SMBs.

Table ● Strategic Benefits of Automation for SMBs Across Business Functions

Risk Mitigation and Enhanced Business Continuity

Strategic risk management, encompassing both operational and strategic risks, is crucial for SMB long-term viability. Automation contributes to risk mitigation Meaning ● Within the dynamic landscape of SMB growth, automation, and implementation, Risk Mitigation denotes the proactive business processes designed to identify, assess, and strategically reduce potential threats to organizational goals. in several key areas. By reducing reliance on manual processes, automation minimizes the potential for human error, fraud, and inconsistencies, enhancing operational reliability. Cloud-based automation solutions offer enhanced data security and business continuity, providing robust backup and disaster recovery capabilities.

Furthermore, automation can facilitate proactive risk identification and mitigation. For instance, automated cybersecurity monitoring systems can detect and respond to potential threats in real-time, minimizing the risk of data breaches and operational disruptions. A small financial services firm, by implementing automated compliance monitoring and reporting systems, can significantly reduce the risk of regulatory penalties and reputational damage, ensuring business continuity Meaning ● Ensuring SMB operational survival and growth through proactive planning and resilience building. and long-term stability.

Innovation Ecosystem Cultivation Strategic Adaptation

Strategic innovation, the capacity to continuously adapt and evolve in response to market disruptions and emerging opportunities, is increasingly vital for SMB competitiveness. Automation can foster a culture of innovation within SMBs by freeing up resources for experimentation, providing data-driven insights for identifying unmet customer needs, and enabling rapid prototyping and deployment of new products or services. Furthermore, automation can facilitate collaboration and knowledge sharing within the organization, fostering a more agile and innovative work environment. A small software development company, by automating code testing and deployment processes, can accelerate its product development cycles, enabling faster iteration and innovation in response to evolving market demands, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and strategic adaptation.

Ethical Considerations and Responsible Automation

Strategic automation implementation must also encompass ethical considerations and responsible deployment practices. SMBs should proactively address potential biases embedded in automated systems, ensure data privacy Meaning ● Data privacy for SMBs is the responsible handling of personal data to build trust and enable sustainable business growth. and security, and consider the societal impact of automation on employment and workforce skills. Transparency in automation processes and open communication with employees and customers are essential for building trust and fostering responsible automation Meaning ● Responsible Automation for SMBs means ethically deploying tech to boost growth, considering stakeholder impact and long-term values. adoption. A small healthcare clinic, when implementing AI-powered diagnostic tools, must prioritize patient data privacy, ensure transparency in diagnostic processes, and provide adequate training for medical staff to effectively utilize and interpret automated diagnostic outputs, demonstrating a commitment to ethical and responsible automation practices.

Future-Proofing Smbs Strategic Foresight

Strategic foresight, the ability to anticipate future trends and proactively position the business for long-term success, is increasingly critical in today’s rapidly evolving business landscape. Automation, particularly when coupled with artificial intelligence and machine learning, provides SMBs with enhanced predictive capabilities and scenario planning tools. By analyzing historical data, identifying emerging patterns, and simulating future scenarios, automated systems can assist SMB leaders in making more informed strategic decisions, anticipating market shifts, and proactively adapting their business models to future challenges and opportunities. A small retail chain, by leveraging AI-powered demand forecasting Meaning ● Demand forecasting in the SMB sector serves as a crucial instrument for proactive business management, enabling companies to anticipate customer demand for products and services. and market trend analysis, can anticipate shifts in consumer preferences, optimize inventory planning for future seasons, and proactively adjust its store formats and product offerings to align with evolving market trends, ensuring strategic foresight Meaning ● Strategic Foresight: Proactive future planning for SMB growth and resilience in a dynamic business world. and long-term competitiveness.

In essence, the strategic benefits Meaning ● Strategic Benefits, within the SMB sphere of Growth, Automation, and Implementation, represent the tangible and intangible advantages a small or medium-sized business realizes from making strategic investments, such as in new technologies, process optimization, or talent acquisition. of automation for SMBs Meaning ● Strategic tech integration for SMB efficiency, growth, and competitive edge. extend far beyond immediate operational gains. They encompass fundamental transformations in business strategy, competitive positioning, and long-term sustainability. By embracing a strategic approach to automation, SMBs can unlock their full potential, not merely as smaller versions of larger corporations, but as agile, innovative, and resilient entities uniquely positioned to thrive in the dynamic landscape of modern commerce.

Paradigm Shift Strategic Automation Smb Ecosystems

Conventional discourse surrounding automation within small to medium-sized business (SMB) contexts often frames it as a tactical instrument for operational optimization ● a means to enhance efficiency, curtail costs, and alleviate manual workloads. This perspective, while not entirely inaccurate, fundamentally underestimates the profound strategic implications of automation, particularly within the intricate and often precarious ecosystems in which SMBs operate. A more nuanced and strategically astute understanding recognizes automation not merely as a tool, but as a catalyst for a paradigm shift, fundamentally altering SMB competitive dynamics, fostering emergent business models, and redefining the very nature of value creation within these vital economic engines.

Disruptive Innovation Automation As Business Model Reconfiguration

Automation’s strategic potency lies not in incremental process improvement, but in its capacity to enable disruptive innovation Meaning ● Disruptive Innovation: Redefining markets by targeting overlooked needs with simpler, affordable solutions, challenging industry leaders and fostering SMB growth. through radical business model reconfiguration. Consider the traditional service-based SMB model, often characterized by high labor intensity, geographical limitations, and linear scalability. Automation, particularly when coupled with cloud computing and AI, facilitates the emergence of digitally enabled service platforms. These platforms transcend geographical constraints, offer scalable service delivery models, and leverage data analytics to personalize customer experiences at scale.

A local accounting firm, by adopting AI-powered accounting software and cloud-based client portals, can transition from a geographically bound, labor-intensive service model to a scalable, digitally enabled platform, serving clients across diverse geographical locations with personalized, data-driven financial services. This paradigm shift disrupts the traditional accounting service model, creating new avenues for value creation and competitive differentiation.

Ecosystem Orchestration Automation And Network Effects

Within complex SMB ecosystems, characterized by intricate interdependencies and collaborative value chains, automation facilitates ecosystem orchestration, fostering network effects Meaning ● Network Effects, in the context of SMB growth, refer to a phenomenon where the value of a company's product or service increases as more users join the network. and emergent value creation. Imagine a regional agricultural SMB ecosystem comprising farmers, distributors, processors, and retailers. Implementing a shared, blockchain-enabled automation platform for supply chain management, logistics optimization, and demand forecasting can create a synergistic ecosystem. This platform enhances transparency, reduces transaction costs, and facilitates real-time information sharing across the ecosystem participants.

Farmers gain access to optimized planting schedules and demand forecasts, distributors streamline logistics, processors optimize production, and retailers gain real-time inventory visibility. This orchestrated ecosystem, enabled by automation, generates network effects, creating value that transcends the sum of individual SMB contributions, fostering collective competitiveness and resilience.

Dynamic Capabilities Automation As Strategic Responsiveness Engine

Dynamic capabilities, the organizational capacity to sense, seize, and reconfigure resources to adapt to turbulent environments, are paramount for SMB survival and sustained competitive advantage Meaning ● SMB Competitive Advantage: Ecosystem-embedded, hyper-personalized value, sustained by strategic automation, ensuring resilience & impact. in volatile markets. Automation, particularly when integrated with real-time data analytics and adaptive algorithms, functions as a strategic responsiveness Meaning ● Strategic Responsiveness is an SMB's capability to dynamically adapt to market changes, ensuring sustained growth and competitive advantage. engine, enhancing SMB dynamic capabilities. Automated market sensing systems can monitor real-time market trends, competitor actions, and evolving customer preferences, providing early warnings and actionable insights.

Automated resource allocation algorithms can dynamically reconfigure operational resources in response to fluctuating demand signals or supply chain disruptions. A small manufacturing SMB, by implementing an AI-powered predictive maintenance system and a dynamic supply chain optimization platform, can proactively anticipate equipment failures, optimize production schedules in response to real-time demand fluctuations, and dynamically adjust procurement strategies to mitigate supply chain risks, enhancing its dynamic capabilities Meaning ● Organizational agility for SMBs to thrive in changing markets by sensing, seizing, and transforming effectively. and strategic responsiveness.

Human-Machine Symbiosis Augmenting Cognitive Capital

The strategic deployment of automation within SMBs should not be viewed as a zero-sum game of human versus machine, but rather as an opportunity for human-machine symbiosis, augmenting cognitive capital Meaning ● Cognitive Capital in the SMB context signifies the accumulated knowledge, skills, experience, and strategic insights embedded within a company's workforce that drives innovation, efficiency, and competitive advantage. and unlocking new dimensions of human potential. By automating routine, cognitively mundane tasks, SMBs liberate human employees to focus on higher-order cognitive functions ● complex problem-solving, creative innovation, strategic decision-making, and emotionally intelligent customer engagement. AI-powered decision support systems can augment human cognitive capabilities by providing data-driven insights, simulating scenarios, and automating data analysis, enabling more informed and strategic human decision-making. A small consulting firm, by implementing AI-powered research tools and automated data analysis platforms, can empower its consultants to dedicate more time to strategic client engagement, complex problem formulation, and innovative solution design, augmenting their cognitive capital and enhancing the firm’s strategic advisory capabilities.

Value Network Transformation Automation And Distributed Ledger Technologies

Emerging technologies, such as blockchain and distributed ledger technologies (DLT), when integrated with automation, hold the potential to fundamentally transform SMB value networks, fostering decentralized collaboration, enhancing trust, and enabling novel value exchange mechanisms. Consider a network of independent craft breweries collaborating to source raw materials, manage logistics, and distribute their products. Implementing a blockchain-based platform for supply chain transparency, provenance tracking, and peer-to-peer transactions can create a decentralized and trustless value network.

This platform automates transaction verification, ensures product authenticity, and facilitates direct value exchange between network participants, reducing reliance on intermediaries and fostering collaborative value creation. This value network transformation, enabled by automation and DLT, redefines SMB collaboration models, creating more resilient, transparent, and equitable value exchange ecosystems.

Strategic automation is not merely about doing things faster or cheaper; it is about fundamentally reimagining SMB business models, fostering ecosystem-level value creation, and unlocking new dimensions of competitive advantage in the digital age.

List ● Strategic Automation Implementation Framework for SMBs

1. Strategic Alignment ● Define clear strategic objectives for automation initiatives, aligning them with overall business goals and competitive strategy.
2. Ecosystem Analysis ● Map the SMB ecosystem, identify key stakeholders, and analyze potential network effects and collaborative opportunities enabled by automation.
3. Dynamic Capability Assessment ● Evaluate existing dynamic capabilities and identify areas where automation can enhance strategic responsiveness and adaptability.
4. Human-Machine Integration Strategy ● Develop a comprehensive strategy for human-machine symbiosis, focusing on augmenting cognitive capital and reallocating human resources to higher-value activities.
5. Technology Platform Selection ● Choose automation technologies and platforms that are scalable, interoperable, and aligned with strategic objectives and ecosystem dynamics.
6. Pilot Projects and Iterative Implementation ● Implement automation initiatives through pilot projects, adopting an iterative and agile approach, continuously learning and adapting based on real-world feedback.
7. Ethical and Responsible Automation Framework ● Establish a clear ethical framework for automation deployment, addressing potential biases, ensuring data privacy, and considering societal impact.
8. Continuous Monitoring and Strategic Refinement ● Implement robust monitoring mechanisms to track automation performance, measure strategic impact, and continuously refine automation strategies in response to evolving market dynamics.

Table ● Automation Technologies and Strategic Applications for SMBs

Data Sovereignty and Algorithmic Transparency Strategic Autonomy

In an increasingly data-driven economy, data sovereignty and algorithmic transparency Meaning ● Algorithmic Transparency for SMBs means understanding how automated systems make decisions to ensure fairness and build trust. emerge as critical strategic considerations for SMBs. While leveraging automation and AI, SMBs must proactively address issues of data ownership, control, and algorithmic bias. Ensuring data sovereignty ● maintaining control over their own data assets ● is crucial for preserving strategic autonomy Meaning ● Strategic Autonomy, for SMBs navigating growth and automation, signifies the capacity to define one's market position and operational direction independently, reducing reliance on external dependencies such as specific vendors or technologies. and preventing vendor lock-in. Demanding algorithmic transparency ● understanding how automated systems make decisions ● is essential for mitigating potential biases and ensuring ethical and responsible automation deployment.

SMBs should prioritize automation solutions that offer data portability, algorithmic explainability, and robust data security measures, safeguarding their strategic autonomy and fostering trust with customers and stakeholders. A small online retailer, when adopting AI-powered recommendation engines, should prioritize solutions that provide algorithmic transparency, allowing them to understand the logic behind product recommendations and ensure fairness and ethical considerations in customer interactions, safeguarding their strategic autonomy and building customer trust.

Resilience and Anti-Fragility Automation For Black Swan Events

Strategic resilience, the capacity to withstand and recover from unexpected disruptions, and anti-fragility, the ability to benefit and grow stronger from volatility and chaos, are increasingly vital attributes for SMBs operating in a world characterized by black swan events and systemic uncertainties. Automation, when strategically deployed, can enhance SMB resilience and even foster anti-fragility. Automated business continuity and disaster recovery systems ensure operational resilience Meaning ● Operational Resilience: SMB's ability to maintain essential operations during disruptions, ensuring business continuity and growth. in the face of unforeseen disruptions. AI-powered predictive analytics can anticipate potential risks and vulnerabilities, enabling proactive risk mitigation.

Furthermore, automation can facilitate agile adaptation and rapid reconfiguration in response to black swan events, allowing SMBs to not merely survive, but to learn and evolve from adversity. A small logistics SMB, by implementing a cloud-based logistics management platform with automated route optimization and real-time tracking capabilities, can enhance its operational resilience to unexpected disruptions such as natural disasters or geopolitical events, enabling rapid route adjustments and service continuity, fostering anti-fragility in the face of black swan events.

Ultimately, the strategic benefits of automation for SMBs transcend mere operational enhancements. They represent a fundamental paradigm shift, enabling disruptive innovation, fostering ecosystem-level value creation, enhancing dynamic capabilities, augmenting cognitive capital, transforming value networks, and fostering strategic resilience and anti-fragility. By embracing a strategically astute and ethically grounded approach to automation, SMBs can not only survive but thrive in the complexities of the digital age, emerging as agile, innovative, and resilient engines of economic growth and societal value creation.

References

• Brynjolfsson, Erik, and Andrew McAfee. The Second Machine Age ● Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies. W. W. Norton & Company, 2014.
• Porter, Michael E. Competitive Advantage ● Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance. Free Press, 1998.
• Teece, David J. “Explicating dynamic capabilities ● the nature and microfoundations of (sustainable) enterprise performance.” Strategic Management Journal, vol. 28, no. 13, 2007, pp. 1319-50.