Embedding SMEs in Supply Chains to Enhance Their Survival: A Comprehensive Exploration

( Vol-12,Issue-4,July - August 2026 )

Author(s): Absolom Mukonyo

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Page No: 017-029
DOI: 10.22161/ijaems.124.2

Keywords:

Embedding, SMEs, Supply Chain, Survivability

Abstract:

Purpose – Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a pivotal role in the global economy, contributing significantly to innovation, employment, and economic growth. However, their survival rate remains low motivating the need to find practical ways to enhance their survival. SME integration into global supply chains enhances their survival and success. Yet, embedding in supply chains remains a challenge for SMEs. This article examines the integration of SMEs within supply chains, emphasizing the opportunities that support their sustainability and expansion. It also enhances the understanding of the significance and impact of embedding SMEs in supply chains as a strategy for improving their long-term viability. Adopting a humanist paradigm with an interpretivist epistemological stance, a qualitative and phenomenological approach, this empirical study investigates the perspectives and experiences of supply chain professionals, SME managers and owners, and incubators actively engaged in the SME sector, gathering data on their insights and real-world experiences. regarding the phenomenon of the value of embedding SMEs in supply chains. The study utilised purposive sampling to achieve data saturation through semi-structured interviews with a total of 30 participants in Botswana. The findings were analysed using a thematic approach. The results obtained show that embedding SMEs in supply chains significantly enhances their survival by fostering resilience, innovation, and market competitiveness. They also reveal that embedding in supply chains allows SMEs to leverage strategic intelligence, collaborate with partners, and adopt sustainable practices, ultimately positioning them to navigate challenges effectively enhancing their survivability. Notwithstanding these life-saving benefits, the results also indicate that embedding in supply chains is slow and not prioritised among SMEs. These insights offer academics and practitioners a more comprehensive understanding of the significance of integrating SMEs into supply chains as a survival practice and suggest that SMEs should prioritise and increase the pace of embedding in SMEs. Notwithstanding the opportunities for deeper insights into the lived experiences of participants, potentially revealing nuanced understandings of their contexts, the research's limitations include potential biases from interviewee perspectives, reliance on subjective interpretations, and the challenge of generalizing findings beyond the specific context of Botswana's SMEs. This calls for future studies to collect data from various socio-economic contexts using different data collection methods for comprehensive discussion regarding the importance of embedding SMEs in supply chains. The paper presents the value of SMEs in supply chains as an approach that significantly enhances SME survival providing a conceptual model that can be useful in understanding the phenomenon of embedding in supply chains.

Received: 30 May 2026; Received in revised form: 28 Jun 2026; Accepted: 03 Jul 2026; Available online: 09 Jul 2026

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