Global hidden champions: key success factors and challenges in the pandemic era

Joyce, Mitchell (2022) Global hidden champions: key success factors and challenges in the pandemic era. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

This study looks at hidden champions, the unknown market leaders in the business world that capture unimaginable levels of market share, and how they found success during the during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study will approach hidden champions from a new angle, as it will look at case examples and their key success factors from a global, and more specifically, Canadian, standpoint. The effectiveness of several pandemic-era key success factors for hidden champions will be highlighted with the aim of disseminating a set of generalizable recommendations. The key success factors will be discussed using dynamic capability theory, specifically its three stages of sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring, and they are applied to international capabilities, innovative capabilities, and business pivoting capabilities. The data collection for this project was conducted using interviews and targets homegrown hidden champions in Newfoundland and Labrador with humble beginnings and evolved into industry dominating hidden champions. These hidden champions, MYSA and Verafin, validate the key success factors with the aim of disseminating to other SMEs with humble beginnings, the target demographic. The significance of COVID-19 on hidden champions and other SMEs is the primary focus for this study, with a specific focus on the change in industry landscape, business models, market focuses, and how hidden champions succeeded despite the pandemic’s challenges. The businesses that have survived and prospered have been the ones that were the most flexible, the ones willing and capable of innovating and adapting aspects of their business to better succeed, while many of those that did not practice these strategies, unfortunately, were not so successful.

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