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Entrepreneurial Firm's Size, Age, And Growth Goals Essay

Entrepreneurial Firm's Size, Age, And Growth Goals Help Determine Its Character And Strategic Direction An entrepreneurial firm's character and strategic direction is guided by its overall goals, including its long-term vision and intent (Entrepreneurship Video, 2013). Age, history/heritage and ambitions for growth also play an important role. For instance, a younger firm must fully define and understand its customer base, and then create offerings to meet and exceed customer expectations. This might involve investment in market research during the first few years, a very important strategic step. Even more established firms benefit from this strategy. By continually assessing strengths, weaknesses and resources, a firm is better able to determine its unique value proposition and carve out a distinct place in the market while meeting customer's needs (Audretsch & Thurik, 2011).

A firm's age can be a competitive advantage, particularly if there has been adequate time to establish a loyal customer base and brand recognition. A positive history can help motivate workers and also help a firm outshine its competitors in the marketplace since more established brands are generally more trusted by consumers. However, older firms may find the need to continually...

This requires innovation and an entrepreneurial orientation.
Entrepreneurial orientation refers to opportunity recognition and exploitation (Audretsch & Thurik, 2011). Large firms must develop new practices that are totally different from previous ones. Young firms must determine the best initial strategies for entry into new markets. Autonomy, proactiveness, competitive aggressiveness, and risk taking each make a unique contribution to the pursuit of new opportunities (Entrepreneurship Video, 2013). Entrepreneurial orientation assumes that the mere pursuit of opportunities can lead to new practices enhancing future success and firm growth. Innovation helps entrepreneurial firms evolve by enabling growth through the creation of new products and services, leveraging new technology trends, or seeking improved processes, logistics or go-to-market strategies (Audretsch & Thurik, 2011).

Firms that are still in their infancy may take the strategic direction of soft launches or starting with small capital expenditures in order to test the waters and fine tune business models. Conducting in-depth market research is critical for younger firms because often important decisions are based…

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References

Audretsch, D.B., & Thurik, A.R. (2011). Unraveling the shift to the entrepreneurial economy. Rochester: doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1664466

Entrepreneurship Video. Retrieved from http://video.mit.edu/watch/leadership-and-entrepreneurship-9505/.

McCafferty, D. (2011). Brave, New Social World. Communications of the ACM, 54(7), 19-21. doi:10.1145/1965724.1965732.

Rhey, W.L., & Gryna, F.M. (2001). Market research for quality in small business. Quality Progress, 34(1), 31-38. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/214772010?accountid=14749.
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