THE EVALUATION OF STRATEGIC ACTIVITIES' IMPORTANCE IN SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED ENTREPRISES.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the construction industry are facing an economic crisis that they have to cope with. The presence of strategic management supports the competitiveness of the enterprises, as confirmed by numerous empirical studies. The behaviour of the Czech companies is influenced by their communist history and their resistance to long-term planning. So the utilisation of strategic activities within the managing of companies can be lower in comparison with Austria. The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors influencing the level of strategic activities' implementation in SMEs in the Czech Republic and Austria. We have tested the impact of the strategic management utilisation level on the economic results from the earliest. After that, verification of hypotheses between two factors, namely size and perceived environmental uncertainty, and the level of strategic management utilisation is tested. In order to verify the hypotheses, we analysed quantitative data collected by a survey of SMEs in the Czech Republic and Austria in 2012. The statistical comparison of the data from the two countries enables us to test the hypothesis of cultural differences' impact on the level of the strategic activities' utilisation given, either historically or demographically. The results confirm that the level of strategic activities' implementation positively influences the economic situation of the SMEs. The level of strategic activities' implementation is positively influenced by both the size of the company and the perceived environmental uncertainty. But there is a statistically significant difference in the perception of environmental uncertainty between the Czech and Austrian companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]