Over the past few years an intense debate has emerged with regard to the value of business planning for an entrepreneur, when launching a new business. The debate concerns the crucial question that all entrepreneurs and company founders face when embarking on the process of launching a new venture. The predicament that so many entrepreneurs and company founders face is whether to plan before embarking on the priceless quest for venture success or not to plan and rather to embark on the new venture in the hope it will succeed. The purpose of this study is to examine both schools of thought and then to explore if in actual fact business planning has an effect on the growth rate of an entrepreneurial venture. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

In this research, the authors aim to identify important dimensions for newly established ventures and the way these dimensions are dealt with. However, this study is limited to small on-line new ventures. In order to achieve this purpose, the authors, after reviewing the literature in the field of e-commerce, have identified five dimensions and have proposed their importance to newly established small internet ventures. Furthermore, the authors tried to check for similarities in the strategies followed by the studied ventures. The dimensions are system qualities, promotion, security, competition and cost. The data was collected from five entrepreneurs who have founded and currently running small online new ventures. The authors found that system qualities, promotion and security were important for all ventures. Whereas, the importance of competition and cost was not shared by all the ventures.

This study probes into the process of new venture establishment from the perspective of entrepreneurship, such as discovery of entrepreneurial opportunities to actions taken to maximize the returns from these opportunities. Furthermore, the role of the entrepreneur in the process is also analyzed. The findings are summarized below: 1.In an ambiguous entrepreneurial environment, opportunities are not always clear from the beginning. Thus, new venture must take the ¡§exploration¡¨ action to find new opportunities. 2.After the discovery of new opportunities, it must take the ¡§exploitation¡¨ action to maximize return from these opportunities to create wealth, i.e. the gradual accumulation of resources to ultimately form its competitive advantage. 3.Both the ¡§exploration¡¨ and ¡§exploitation¡¨ actions can be further divided into different tacit strategies: systematic, guerilla, undisciplined, and autonomous tacit strategies. In addition, an entrepreneur has many different roles: chief, mentor, coach, and lord. However, no matter the actions taken, all new ventures must first perform risk assessments, from its internal resources to its external environment, before taking any actions in order to minimize failures.

Background - Planning occupies an important position in business literature. It is a well-investigated area with a long and extensive research tradition. However, the findings of the research are not consistent. In the planning literature there is a strong debate among researchers which results in two opposing points of view. On the one hand, proponents of planning in business, also known as the planning school, claim that planning plays an important role and has a positive impact on companies. On the other hand, opponents challenge these claims and suggest that a company should instead focus on flexibility, learning and resource utilization. These claims may be of particular interest in new ventures. The environment in which new ventures usually operate may be turbulent with a high degree of uncertainty and a lack of resources. This setting may create problems for the application of planning procedures and can contradict suggestions in existing literature. In addition, the entrepreneur plays a crucial role in every new venture. He or she is the one who founds the new venture and is the main decision-maker. Planning activities compete for resources and time, which are scarce commodities in new ventures and can cause entrepreneurs to allocate less time to the business itself. Purpose - The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the changes in business planning in new ventures. In addition, we endeavored to explain the reasons why these changes occur and what sparks them. Our aim was to gain in-depth understanding of the business planning change phenomenon in new small-sized firms and add additional knowledge to the existing planning literature. Method & Theory - Semi-structured interviews with six entrepreneurs in the Jonkoping region were conducted to collect the empirical data on business planning within the service industry. The collected data was analyzed together by applying the theoretical frame of references. Conclusion - The thesis concluded that three main business planning situations occur in new ventures. These were at first a smooth or volatile increase during the beginning period of new ventures and resulted in the presence of the stabilised business planning pattern in the later stage of new ventures. This study also observed three main drivers behind those changes: business planning experience, economical factors and customers.

Abstract When the enterprise competition is no longer the individual show that will play singles fights alone, but is the supply chain or the network team war. The partnership importance grows day by day. In transforming process from ¡§you, I¡¨ to ¡§us¡¨, the reciprocal benefit and mutual trust are playing tug-of-war with the self-interest and selfishness, that will cause the synthesis effect by the cooperation or perhaps will make loss because of noncooperation. This research origin is created by a new born venture case of an international merger & acquisition. As a result of product characteristic is combined by the electronic and textile industry, collected on the modern science and technology and traditional process in a body. It faced the defeat and crisis because of the careless and indiscreet on the partnership management. After redesigning the transnational organization and establishing the unique supply chain, actually the cooperation synthesis effect causes the new venture to develop turns defeat into victory. The market share and the profit rate large are getting better. It also integrates the resources to get fine solid market competitive power. However, after we get the factors of the goal, the benefit, the risk, the specialty and the share, the communication and the culture, promise and crisis, how to carry on the management to obtain the high quality partner cooperation? This research utilized the qualitative case study technique, reconstructed the experience to narrated three sections of stories, the dialectical analysis will inquire into the enterprise merger & acquisition, the transnational associates and the core supplier partnership management to get the conclusion and the principle as below. 1. The partnership of the enterprise merger & acquisition started from¡§the common interest¡¨, but is terminated easy by¡§the crisis¡¨. 2. The partnership of the transnational associates was established on¡§specialty¡¨and facilitated the cooperation with¡§communication¡¨. simultaneously we must paid attention to the difference of¡§the culture¡¨extremely, and established ¡§the share¡¨ interaction, but can avoid both sides did not cooperate or is perfunctory to develop partnership because of the inter-competition point of view. 3. The core supplier's partnership, must be established above the long-term strategy, both sides were working by the supplementary operation pattern,set up¡§the common goal¡¨as the cooperation principle, and do the management and the execution to solid ¡§promise¡¨, and must positively manage the conflict of ¡§the culture¡¨ difference.

Interdisciplinary cooperation among people trained in technical and economic fields has been identified as an important success factor in new venture teams. However, empirical findings also indicate that individuals often refuse to engage in close and trustful relationships with representatives of other disciplines. Thus the question arises whether education programs on interdisciplinary cooperation may be suitable to prepare students for future activities in multifunctional business start-up teams. In this study, we investigate the psychological effects of an interdisciplinary business planning course held at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration with the intention of promoting cooperation between technology-oriented professionals and business management students. The findings show that this course experience changes the students' attitudinal beliefs with respect to representatives of the technical discipline by reducing stereotypical assumptions. At the same time, the course fosters awareness of the challenges involved in cross-disciplinary cooperation. The more students communicate with their technical counterparts and the more they familiarize themselves with the technical aspects of the project, the stronger these effects become.(author's abstract)

The world is in the midst of a new wave of economic development with entrepreneurship and innovation as the catalysts. The ability to continually innovate and to engage in an ongoing process of entrepreneurial action has become the source of competitive advantage and a lack of entrepreneurial actions in today’s global economy could be a recipe for failure (Kuratko, 2009). Organisations need to keep abreast of developments in their business environment and continually identify and evaluate opportunities if they are to prosper in a rapidly changing world, and they must become more entrepreneurial as their corporate environments become more dynamic and increasingly competitive (Shepherd, Patzelt and Haynie, 2009). Opportunity recognition remains an important issue for academic research. This research report aims at making a modest contribution to further understand opportunity recognition behaviour of employees within their existing work environment. The research focussed on employees working in the South African financial sector, and examined their perceptions of opportunity recognition behaviours and motivators. An understanding of these important behaviours and motivators will allow senior management of corporate entities to have a better understanding of the opportunity recognition processes by employees, and to put in place mechanisms that facilitate and support these processes in search of robust entrepreneurial activities. Apart from the economic rationale, the motivations for studying employees’ behaviour come mainly from the limited number of studies of this nature that have been carried out in emerging economies. The study is performed using data from 195 employees drawn from 23 financial sector companies in South Africa. This research concludes that South African financial sector employees perceive themselves as showing strong levels of opportunity recognition behaviours, and opportunity recognition motivators are also perceived important in promoting entrepreneurial initiatives. The empirical study reveals that there is a significant positive relationship between opportunity recognition behaviours and the frequency of opportunities recognised. vi Success is found to have a moderating effect on the relationship between frequency of opportunity recognition and perceptions of opportunity recognition behaviours. Respondents, who have a low or medium number of successfully implemented opportunities, recognise a higher number of opportunities as their opportunity recognition behaviour increases. However, those respondents with a high number of successfully implemented opportunities tend to show a slight decrease in the total number of opportunities identified as their opportunity recognition behaviour increases. A cluster analysis was carried out to provide a deeper understanding of opportunity recognition behaviours and motivators, and three distinct clusters with differing characteristics were identified. These clusters are named according to the characteristics displayed by the respective clusters (corporate achievers, mavericks, and doers). The corporate achievers cluster tends to perceive high levels of opportunity recognition behaviours and motivators. This high proportion of perceived alignment to company strategy combined with high levels of opportunity recognition behaviours may encourage more of the proposed opportunities to be in line with company strategy, which in turn may lead to the higher proportion of successfully implemented opportunities. The mavericks cluster recognise a large number of opportunities, but are behind the corporate achiever cluster when it comes to the proportion of successfully implemented opportunities and perceive low alignment to company strategy. Although this cluster shows a large proportion of opportunities proposed for their current company, their low perception of alignment to company strategy may mean that the opportunities they recommend do not always fit into the company strategy, which may explain their lower proportion of successfully implemented opportunities. The doers cluster tends to perceive low levels of opportunity recognition behaviour and motivators, as well as low levels of alignment to company strategy. Respondents in this cluster seem to do their work, but show low levels of entrepreneurial orientation.

No / This paper undertakes a comparative study of intervention strategies and the resultant impact upon new enterprise creation in the UK and Hungary. Firstly, secondary data is used to compare and contrast the actions of and support provided by, major employer organisations faced with the need to downsize and restructure in the light of changing economic circumstances. Parallels are drawn between the need to support the local economy in specific regions of the UK, which faced extreme recession following the decline of major industries and the need to support local economies in Hungary, which face an uncertain future, but new opportunities, following the liberalisation of economic policy. Secondly, the paper reports the results of interviews with entrepreneurs and owner-managers in both countries who have received and who are receiving support and assistance to establish, grow and develop new enterprises. For many this marks a significant transition from employment to self-employment and requires the acquisition of new skills and competences together with the acceptance of high levels of risk and exposure not previously experienced. Thirdly, the paper assesses the impact of changing relationships within the local economy. This is especially significant where newly established SMEs operate as sub-contractors to the supporting organisation which takes the opportunity to outsource services and/or production which was previously undertaken in-house. The paper concludes with specific recommendations concerning the role of facilitators in influencing attitudes towards entrepreneurship and actions, which may be undertaken to encourage regeneration through the creation of new enterprises.

The ability of entrepreneurs to incubate new venture opportunity remains an under-researched area of entrepreneurship studies. When engaged actors are motivated to pursue such activity venturing action is invigorated. This bridges the gap between believing in an idea and developing personal capacity to translate that belief into viable venturing. However, it has remained unclear how successful entrepreneurs have navigated this complex phase. This study therefore advances empirical insight into the iterative character of new venture opportunity incubation as enacted by seasoned entrepreneurs. Building on existing scholarship the study promotes a lived experience-led conceptualisation of key constructs and their relationships. Longitudinal data gathering from purposively selected case studies enabled the capture of qualitative data. Computer aided data analysis and coding (CADAC) revealed underling themes, thus illuminating meaningful pattern recognition. Deductive analysis of cross sectional interview data substantiated findings. Triangulation analysis revealed the activities, cognitions and behaviours which characterise opportunity incubation, as the subjects converted ideas into new venture concepts. These findings contribute to existing knowledge at a theoretical level: firstly, by identifying and describing the micro-processes that constitute new venture opportunity incubation. Secondly, the granular level of activation that the study accessed, revealed entrepreneurs’ cognitive and behavioural competencies in driving enactment. Finally, the study identified the venture concept artefacts that seasoned entrepreneurs’ prioritise when shaping new venture concepts. / Thesis (DPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / DPhil / Unrestricted

Abstract Background Even though the topic of shared leadership has been thoroughly investigated throughout recent years in research, limited literature has focused on this process in the context of new ventures. Moreover, to the knowledge of the authors of this paper, no previous literature has explored how shared leadership evolves as new ventures go through the different phases of the entrepreneurial process, and new members join the team. Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the functioning and practice of shared leadership within new venture teams, and to explore if, how and why shared leadership evolves throughout the life cycle of new ventures as the size of the entrepreneurial team changes. Method This study adopted a qualitative approach. A total of nine semi-structured interviews (six co-founders from different new ventures and three new employees) were conducted and transcribed. The collected data was analyzed using template analysis, presented in the empirical findings, discussed in relation to the frame of reference in the discussion, and finally summarized in the conclusion. Conclusion Shared leadership continues to be essential throughout all of the phases of the entrepreneurial process. In the ideation phase, shared leadership is necessary as the different co-founders have different skills and experiences, and different individuals took charge at different times based on their expertise. Shared leadership continued to be essential in the start-up phase as new employees were hired to fill the knowledge-gaps in the new ventures. As the size of the new ventures was still rather small, it was still possible to involve most of the employees in the decision-making. As the size of the new ventures increased and they reached the growth phase, organizational restructuring was necessary and shared leadership was exercised in a different manner. A management team utilized shared leadership to take over-all decisions, the members of the management teams oversaw functional teams, and in those functional teams, shared leadership was utilized.