Build for fame, buy for fortune and borrow for friends: growrh strategies and smes'performance in Mexico

While the determinants of firm performance have been the focus of lots of research, there 
is a lack of studies examining the relation between performance goals and growth strategies. 
Responding to the call made by some scholars on this matter, we investigate the causal relations 
among growth strategies and the performances of the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in 
the Technological Information and Electronic Sector (ETICS) in México. The most innovative 
contribution of this work is the analysis of the moderator effect of the Intellectual Property 
Protection (IPP) and trust in the environment on those relations. 
Findings indicate that the performance goals pursued among SMEs are related to the 
growth strategies they select. We found that certain firms that are conservative and risk averse, 
preferably decide to grow organically, building a firm step by step, pursuing long-term survival 
and thus achieve fame; on the other side, we found that some other firms that are aggressive and 
willing to take risks decide to grow by buying companies, aiming to increase their fortune by 
improving profits; finally, we found a third group of firms whose performance goals are between 
those of the previous groups, as they share both risk and profit; because of it, we consider them 
as neutral risk; they choose to grow by borrowing-giving resources and capabilities, in other 
words, these firms make business–friends that allow them to consolidate their businesses. 
We also found that relations between growth strategies and growth goals are stronger in 
those firms that trust the most on both intellectual property protection (formal mechanisms) as 
on high-trust relations in business transactions (informal mechanisms); this has managerial 
implications that are also discussed in the paper.