Beschreibung:
<jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-heading">Purpose</jats:title><jats:p>The purpose of this paper is to develop a contemporary resource‐based taxonomy of manufacturing micro, small, and medium‐sized enterprises (MSMEs) and to relate the findings to other small to medium‐sized enterprise (SME) taxonomies and to resource‐based theory.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-heading">Design/methodology/approach</jats:title><jats:p>Cluster analysis of 186 Swedish manufacturing MSMEs. The cluster analysis is based on resources and capabilities. The cluster variables were identified through case studies and a literature review of contemporary studies in resource‐based theory.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-heading">Findings</jats:title><jats:p>The cluster analysis resulted in identification of six different clusters: Ikeas, conservatives, technocrats, marketeers, craftsmen, and nomads. The results are related to other SME taxonomies and the usefulness of going beyond the one‐dimensional scale of entrepreneurs and non‐entrepreneurs is discussed.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-heading">Originality/value</jats:title><jats:p>Classifications of firms, for example the Miles and Snow typology, have been used successfully in numerous studies. Also, the resource‐based view of the firm has had a great impact on business research and there has been increasing interest in MSMEs. However, there are very few contemporary resource‐based taxonomies of MSMEs.</jats:p></jats:sec>