Critical competitive strategy issues every entrepreneur should consider before going into business

Alan Davis and Eric M. Olson

Business Horizons, 2008, vol. 51, issue 3, 211-221

Abstract: The topic of formulating and implementing competitive strategy is usually considered from the perspective of a large, well established, and oftentimes multi-divisional corporation. Achieving a sustainable competitive advantage, however, is every bit or even more critical to the survival of smaller startup businesses. Although much research has been performed on how startup companies create value for their constituencies and on how they launch products, few attempts have been made to apply classical large-company strategy ideas to startups. In this paper we consider eleven distinct differences between how large, established firms and their smaller startup counterparts consider strategy initiatives with an eye to guiding entrepreneurs toward higher probabilities of success. The eleven differences are building on market strengths, size of market, relationship to resources, presence of constraints, visibility of and by competitors, investor expectations, shareholder/investor risk tolerance, process, portfolio management, triage, and time horizon for results.

Date: 2008
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