The Decline of Small Firms: A Preliminary Investigation into the Concept of Complacency

This exploratory study reports inductive efforts to ground complacency in the reality of practical observation. Based on derailed interviews with the directors of 12 Small Business Development Centers (SBDC), and 8 retrospective cases, it demonstrates the dynamics of complacency as a context of decline of small firms, and the role of key stakeholders in the reversal of decline. The interviews and cases illustrate the pervasive role of complacency, which manifests in managerial weaknesses and operational malfunctioning, and leads to decline. Moreover an analysis of both interviews and cases reveals that concessions extracted from key stakeholders through third-party negotiations help declining small firms to survive.