Heterogeneidade de desempenho das pequenas empresas brasileiras: uma abordagem da Vis？o Baseada em Recursos (VBR)

the aim of this study was to verify whether the differences in performance (sales growth rate -sgr) of brazilian's small firms within the same sector were higher than the differences in economic performance between sectors. it was suggested that the internal factors (organizational capabilities and skills) would exert greater influence than the external factors (strategic positioning and location) in the heterogeneity of performance of brazilian's small firms. data were collected from a sample of 328 fastest growing brazilian's small firms in 2010. the main results showed significant differences in performance (sales growth rate -sgr) between the brazilian's small firms regardless of industry sector, confirming the effect of variation in firm performance. the industry effect was not significant, since the results suggested no significant differences in performance (sales growth rate -sgr) in brazilian's small firms at the sectoral level. it was also observed that the variance of performance (sales growth rate -sgr) among the sectors where the companies was lower than the variance of performance within the sector where the companies operate. thus reinforcing the assumption that the internal factors related to the companies individually, able to influence more significant than external factors in the performance heterogeneity. it was concluded that the skills and organizational skills were unevenly distributed among firms, causing various influences on their performance (sales growth rate -sgr), validating the theoretical foundations of the resource based view.