Entrepreneurial Strategy

Entrepreneurial Strategy aims to revive the debate on the role of entrepreneurship in the context of mature business. The authors contend that mature and declining industries are increasingly dominated by the negative pressure of external factors, but they are also embedded with a potential renewed role for entrepreneurship because the industry forces as a whole tend to break up, leaving space for strategic business innovation.

The book offers a thorough insight to the entrepreneurial dynamics behind emerging businesses in declining industries, in particular on the roles of resources, processes and people. Using structured business case studies, it illustrates the entrepreneurial strategy of these firms, concluding that emerging firms target growth by:

• expanding to control key assets
• using innovation rather than production of new technologies
• making significant improvements in productivity
• building a particular customer-oriented reputation.

Practitioners, managers and entrepreneurs wishing to better understand the dynamics behind emerging businesses, and policymakers developing industry foresight and setting out policies for the enhancement of entrepreneurial activity will find this book invaluable. It will also be warmly welcomed by students, academics and researchers with an interest in entrepreneurship, industrial economics and business administration.