Abstract
Purpose: The purpose of this research is to examine the activities and behaviours of potential entrepreneurs as they move towards engagement in business start-up.
Design/methodology/approach: Based on in-depth engagement with seven founders of new businesses, and informed by a review of the relevant literature.
Findings: A series of transitions towards business start-up re identified, which in turn produced a five-step framework for examining and understanding the "pre-start" phase of preparation for entrepreneurship.
Research limitations/implications: The case-based approach provided detailed and contextualised insight into how a small group of founders prepared for business start-up. There may be a need to test the framework with a larger group of business founders to assess its wider relevance and applicability.
Practical implications: The pre-start framework identifies how individuals progress towards start-up, and so could be used as the basis for a programme to encourage individuals to move through each step towards engagement in business start-up. The movement from step to step can also be used to assess overall levels of preparation for entrepreneurship within the wider population, and so has the potential to be a useful indicator of overall levels of entrepreneurial orientation.
Originality/value: The paper presents a process-focused model of the pre-start dynamic.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 404-417 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| Journal | Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2007 |
Keywords
- Business formation
- Entrepreneurialism
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Business, Management and Accounting (miscellaneous)
- Strategy and Management