Dimension and organisational behaviour: The Portuguese furniture sector case

The Portuguese economy is characterised by the existence of small companies, for which it is very difficult to find critical dimensions to obtain scale economies to production, distribution, and commercialisation. It became an interesting field to study. This article will study an important Portuguese traditional sector, where quality and know‐how is a reality: the production and commercialisation of the furniture sector. Characterised by a small dimension, almost 3,400 firms with an average of 20 persons each, this article tries to understand the reason why these firms could or could not be interested in co‐operation nets, mergers or acquisitions, compatible with a bigger organisational dimension. While some are interested in co‐operating, increasing their dimension, others resist these changes due to some human resources and organisational behaviour problems.