Non-Financial Performance Measures in Small Medium Enterprises’ Supply Chain Management

Abstract

Performance measures in the supply chain have become one of the vital factors in enhancing the growth and profitability of small medium enterprises (SMEs), however, with focus more on financial indicators than non-financial ones. This paper therefore attempts to redress the balance by discussing the extent to which SMEs make use of non-financial performance measures and argues for their importance. It is based on research within a positivistic paradigm, with the use of questionnaires administered to purposively selected SMEs in manufacturing around Cape Town, South Africa. The data was analysed to generate descriptive results through SPSS. The major findings indicate that SMEs do consider and recognise the significance of non-financial measures and to some extent incorporate them in their supply chain management (SCM). However these measures are not formally implemented.