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Smith, Darragh (2025) Strategy Formation in Rural Irish Family-Owned SMEs: Succession, Workforce Planning and Digital Disruption. Masters thesis, Dublin, National College of Ireland.
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Abstract
This dissertation investigates how family-owned manufacturing SMEs in rural Ireland, particularly in the Cavan and Monaghan region, respond to the pressures of leadership succession, technological disruption and strategy formation. Although SMEs form quite an integral element of Ireland’s rural economy, existing academic literature has largely focused on startups and urban enterprises as opposed to mature, family-run companies. This study aims to address that gap by exploring how strategic planning is shaped in businesses such as these, in the context of the above pressures.
This research was guided by five main objectives: to explore how SME founders’ approach strategic decision-making; to examine the impact of past crises on the strategic outlook of businesses; to check how strategy is actually implemented in practice; to investigate the human capital challenges encountered as a result of automation and AI and finally to research how succession is managed within family-owned SMEs. These objectives provided a framework for understanding the lived experiences of SME owners in the Cavan and Monaghan region and to provide insight into the strategic behaviours that result from their response to structural pressures.
After deliberation by the researcher, a qualitative, interpretivist methodology was employed in the analysis of this dissertation. This mechanism utilised a semi-structured interview process with six SME owner–founders from Counties Cavan and Monaghan. After the interview were completed, thematic analysis via the Braun and Clarke method was applied to the data, which allowed a series of themes to develop. This particular approach enabled the researcher to gain deep, context-specific answers to the research questions.
The findings from the study revealed that strategy formation in the business is mostly informal and founder led. It also outlined that it is predominantly shaped by the intuition and experience of the founder rather than from a strategically planned process. The results further outlined that past crises, particularly the 2008 financial crash resulted in increased caution in owners of SMEs. Another finding revealed that strategic direction remains heavily dependent on the founder, with limited delegation or documentation. Labour shortages were also identified as a major issue in these businesses, especially in the area of recruiting skilled trades. Automation and AI were recognised by most as being important however adoption of these technologies was infrequent and cautious, mainly due to cost, capability gaps and cultural resistance. Succession planning was widely noted by many of the participants as important but admittedly often delayed or disregarded entirely, with some founders citing emotional attachment and uncertainty about future leadership as their rationales.
The study concludes that rural Irish SMEs are quite resilient and that they are deeply rooted in their communities but that they face many severe barriers. Some practical recommendations that have been devised on foot of the analysis are the potential introduction of light-touch strategic routines, development of regional training partnerships and promotion of a process of tiered digital implementation. The researcher also recommends further study in this area. In this recommendation it is suggested that consideration be given to study at a level that would allow exploration of these combined dynamics simultaneously over a longer duration, across a broader geographical area and with a larger sample size. Additionally, it is suggested that future research should examine how founders can be encouraged and incentivised to begin their succession planning earlier in their working career, allowing potential successors to be mentored and to contribute their own skillsets while the founder is still active in the business.
The researcher feels that this dissertation contributes new understanding to strategy formation in rural Irish SMEs and also offers a number of actionable insights for entities such as policymakers, enterprise support organisations and business owners navigating generational and technological change.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Masters) |
|---|---|
| Supervisors: | Name Email MacDonald, Robert UNSPECIFIED |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | SME strategy; rural enterprise; succession planning; automation; family business; strategic implementation; workforce development; qualitative research; Ireland |
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > Specific Industries > Manufacturing Industry H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > Small Business Sector H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management > Strategic Management |
| Divisions: | School of Business (- 2025) > Master of Business Administration |
| Depositing User: | Tamara Malone |
| Date Deposited: | 20 Jan 2026 16:33 |
| Last Modified: | 20 Jan 2026 16:33 |
| URI: | https://norma.ncirl.ie/id/eprint/9106 |
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