Performance of Industrial Service SMEs: A Conceptual Framework and Diagnostic System

The services sector plays a dominant role in the economy of most industrialized countries. In Canada for instance, this sector employs approximately 75% of the labour force, thus more than the manufacturing sector, and comprises both services to individuals/consumers and to organizations/enterprises. In this regard, industrial service SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) are the object of particular attention from governments, given that they have become indispensable to the manufacturing and innovation " networks " of countries such as Canada. In the new global, knowledge-based economy, manufacturing enterprises, including SMEs, can rarely maintain or increase their competitiveness alone, hence the strategic necessity to collaborate with industrial service SMEs, most often within a network organization context. In this perspective, what " services " are most strategic and what are the key determinants of the performance of industrial service SMEs? In this paper, we develop a conceptual framework as a foundation to a research program designed to answer such questions, highlighting these organizations' needs and challenges with regard to their business practices. This framework's usefulness is illustrated by presenting an expert diagnostic system meant to evaluate and link the practices and performance of industrial service SMEs, and whose design is based on the conceptual framework.