Success Factors of Walloon Hidden Champions: A Mixed Qualitative and Quantitative Approach

Details

Supervisors

Frédéric Pouchain

Faculty

Louvain School of Management

Degree label

Master [120] en Ingénieur de gestion

Abstract

Some niche-oriented SMEs have taken full advantage of new opportunities opened by globalization to become continental or even global leaders in their industries. These hidden champions display a steady growth and remarkable resilience acquired through closeness to customers and high quality of products and processes. National-centered studies on hidden champions were conducted in France, Germany, Greece, Sweden, Central and Eastern European countries and the Spanish Basque Country. Yet, no attempt was made to identify and characterize Belgian hidden champions. This Master’s thesis adopts a questionnaire-based methodology to qualitatively and quantitatively explore Walloon hidden champions. We find out that although being similar to foreign hidden champions, those companies have developed specific traits such as a cyclical low growth, a limited number of customers, an intense cooperation with distributors, a growing competition from Asian countries and an increased public funding. Those strategic learnings open up future research opportunities to further anchor the concept of hidden champions into the Belgian economy in general and the Walloon economy in particular.