Entrepreneurial Ventures and Small Business

Abstract

Both small and large businesses are of critical importance to the performance of the economy. It is useful however to draw a distinction between entrepreneurial ventures and individual and corporate entrepreneurship since they serve different economic functions and their potentials for innovation and growth are different. In this paper, drawing upon entrepreneurial strategy formation perspective, entrepreneurial marketing, and value innovation logic for high growth, a model of a transitional entrepreneurial mode for the behaviour and the strategic approach of the entrepreneurial venture is introduced. It is proposed that a shift into the entrepreneurial mode is instrumental in planning and initiating new ventures, and, in achieving a forward leap in the growth trend at any point in the life of ongoing ventures. The study of the franchised business, the business format franchisor and their partnership as examples of individual, corporate and collective entrepreneurship contributes to the domain of entrepreneurship research. The growing appreciation of franchising as an entrepreneurial endeavour presents us with a multiple disciplinary perspective is attracting the attention of marketing, management, entrepreneurship and small business researchers. The roles of the franchisor and the franchisee in business format franchising are discussed in order to demonstrate the limitations of small business in adopting an entrepreneurial mode.