Abstract
There is a growing interest from companies and academic research in Management Innovations (MIs) carrying a managerial philosophy alternative to that of the hierarchical organization. Their adoption by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) appears a priori unexpected given the specificities of SMEs, in particular their vulnerability and the strong centrality of the manager. The exacerbated context of the growth of the SME makes the adoption of such MIs all the more unexpected, as it brings multiple upheavals and destabilizing tensions, and pushes the SME to evolve towards a classical hierarchical organization. However, existing literature reports a small number of studies carried out on MIs in SMEs, and a fortiori on MIs that are alternative to hierarchical organization in growing SMEs, thus not shedding enough light on these phenomena. Therefore, as a first line of research, this doctoral work aims to identify the motivations that push growing SMEs to adopt a MI alternative to the hierarchical organization. From a dynamic perspective, our second line of research is concerned with the evolution of such MIs when the SME experiences a new phase of growth after its adoption. To answer these questions, our choice was to go with a qualitative methodology, a methodology that is consistent with our interpretative epistemological paradigm. We are studying three cases of growing SMEs as part of our first line of research, and two cases of SMEs experiencing growth after the adoption of a first MI as part of the second line of research. Our results show that the studied SMEs adopt MIs alternative to hierarchical organization because they refuse to evolve towards a hierarchical organization because of their growth. The hierarchical organization is perceived as distancing the company from its identity and its original values. They adopt such MIs with the intent of perpetuating their original values and history. Our second line of research shows that the two studied SMEs are setting up a second MI alternative to hierarchical organization in order to overcome the challenges brought by a new growth stage. This second MI is aligned with the philosophy of the first MI, philosophy that is congruent with the original values of the SME, values that it wishes to thereby perpetuate.