This paper examines the perceptions of small firms from eight OECD countries towards their national climate for innovation, and the perceived importance of outsiders in assisting them with innovation projects. A total of 505 firms were surveyed, each had an innovation they were seeking to commercialise. Key issues examined were the firm's senior managers' perceptions of how supportive their country was to innovators in relation to government policy, the cost of doing business and the quality of communications infrastructure. Also examined was the ease of access to markets, skilled labour, research centres and external financing. The managers were also asked to indicate how much value they placed on outsiders such as accountants, venture financiers, customers, suppliers, lawyers and others in relation to their strategic decision making over commercialisation activities. Differences were found between the country sub-samples using discriminant analysis. However, the similarities between these firms suggest more commonality than differences.

As a growth strategy, small businesses are increasingly seeking customers in foreign countries. Our knowledge about certain small business export concepts and relationships, however, is still fragmented. The purpose of this study is to empirically examine export start-up effectiveness issues for a set of small firms. Results indicate that sales measures, such as export intensity (export sales as a percent of total sales), were the most frequently used effectiveness criteria for the first year of exporting. This finding is important because in the literature export intensity has been criticised as an export effectiveness measure.

The purpose of this study is to examine hypothesized relationships among small firms' cultural values pertaining to formal planning, their practices implementing those values, and their export performance. Sample results include those which indicate that significant relationships exist between export planning values and practices, and between the planning practice of using advisors and export performance.

Strategic management studies have tended to focus on either process or content issues, but not on both of these areas. Recently, some researchers have argued that the interaction of process and content should be explored. The purpose of this study is to examine this association. In particular, the study provides support for the hypothesis that the performance of small, rapidly growing firms will tend to be influenced by the interaction of planning formality (a process variable) and product/service innovation (a content variable).

The purpose of this study was to develop a classification scheme for the types of problems encountered by emerging organizations using an open-ended approach to generating the Initial response data. The CEOs of 121 Inc. 500 firms were asked to state the most significant problem during their firms’ first year and during a later growth stage. The open-ended responses were systematically sorted Into classes of problems, and the resulting classification schemes appeared to be more comprehensive and exhaustive than some previously developed schemes that relied on closed-ended response categories to develop their problem classes. Once developed, the classification schemes were used to examine the relative frequencies of types of problems at both the start-up and later growth stage. The findings indicated mixed support for previous research linking types of dominant problems to different stages of organizational development.

ABSTRACT This paper's purposes were to examine the types of selected by, and the factors that might be related to goal choices in small rapidly growing firms during their start-up and growth stages. Results indicated that sales growth was the most frequently cited goal during start-up, while profitability was the modal choice during growth. Other results suggest that goal choices were related to an organization's life-cycle stage and to selected entrepreneurial and environmental variables. BACKGROUND Organizational or objectives define an organization's purpose and reason for existence. The benefits of explicit are obvious. They serve as sources of legitimacy and motivation, as standards for judging performance, and as a rationale for internal structure and decision processes (Simon, 1964). Broadly speaking, organizational constitute the foundation of effective management-i.e., good management begins with the development of overall goals. Over the years, however, organizational have received much less attention from management scholars than individual employee and individual goal setting approaches. Furthermore, the empirical research on the nature of organizational that exists has centered upon mid- to large-sized organizations in their mature life-cycle stages. Scant attention has been devoted to the of smaller firms. Additionally, no empirical data exist regarding the patterns of change of the of small, rapidly growing firms as they move from the start-up stage to the growth stage of development. The primary purpose of the current study was to address the aforementioned deficiencies in the literature regarding organizational goals. More specifically, our study sought to: 1) assess the types of selected and pursued by small, rapidly growing firms at both their start-up and growth stages of development, and 2) investigate the relationship of various organizational, entrepreneurial, and environmental variables to the types of selected by these organizations at both their start-up and growth life-cycle stages. Types of Goals A wide range of potential organizational exists. For example, Drucker (1954) has noted that organizations may establish in any one (or all) of eight key results areas: market share, innovation, productivity, physical and financial resources, profitability, managerial performance and development, worker performance and attitudes, and social responsibility. In one of the few empirical studies of the types of pursued by organizations, England (1967) surveyed the top managers of U. S. firms and found that organizations typically have multiple that are at times in conflict with each other. In another study, Shetty (1979) asked the executives of the largest firms in the United States to send him statements of their corporate goals. The types of cited by the 82 respondents and the percentage of companies listing each goal were as follows: profitability (89%), growth (82%), market share (66%), social responsibility (65%), employee welfare (62%), product quality and service (60%), research and development (54%), diversification (51%), efficiency (50%), financial stability (49%), resource conservation (39%), management development (35%), multinational enterprise (29%), consolidation (17%), and miscellaneous other goals (18%). The number of listed by these organizations ranged from one to eighteen, with an average of five to six goals. The three most frequently mentioned corporate were economic (profitability, growth, and market share). Non-economic were cited less frequently. Factors Related to Goal Choices An organization's choice of may be related to a wide range of internal and external variables. One internal variable that can potentially impact goal choices is the stage of development of the firm. Although the organizational life-cycle literature does not explicitly address organizational goal changes, it does suggest that organizations encounter strong pressures for change as the nature of various internal and external variables change with the stages of a firm's life cycle (Greiner, 1972; Kazanjian, 1988; Kazanjian & Drazin, 1989; Kimberly & Miles, 1980; Miller & Friesen, 1984; Quinn & Cameron, 1983; Smith, Mitchell & Summer, 1985). …

The focus of this study was on successful, small, rapidly growing firms and on people who manage (entrepreneurs/ CEOs) or help manage (interventionists/consultants) these firms. Investigates the structural (complexity, formalization and centralization) changes that occur in firms as they move from the start‐up stage to the growth stage of development. One reason these structural changes were examined was that rapid growth often strains organizations′ existing structures and, in turn, threatens their very existence. Further, little empirical information exists about structural changes in small, growing firms. Using a sample of Inc. 500 firms, finds support for the hypotheses that organizations in their growth stage will exhibit greater complexity, greater formalization, and less centralization than in their start‐up stage.

Most academic research concerning business plans suggests that business plans improve the performance of new firms, and virtually all textbooks related to small business advise ent repreneurs to prepare plans before sta rting a business. A survey of the chief executive officers (CEO) in the INC. 500 (America's 500 fastest growing, privatel y held small firms ) suggests otherwise-fewer than twenty percent of the respondents indicated that they had prepared complete business plans before start-up. Furthermore, firms which prepared business plans were less profitable when entering the rapid growth phase than those which did not. This article explores benefits and limitations of business plan preparation.

A growing number of companies have used joint alliances, acquisitions, and venture teams to maintain competitive advantage and respond to rapidly changing environments. But not all have been able to manage the people and design issues that ensure success.

This study provides information about important entrepreneurial abilities. Initially, the activities that entrepreneurs undertake when starting new ventures are organized into a process. It is proposed that a useful framework for examining entrepreneurial abilities could be developed through two thinking modes that can be linked to these activities. One mode is characterized by intuitive, holistic and simultaneous thinking; the other, by rational, analytic and sequential processing.

In order to be entrepreneurs, people need to have both original ideas and the ability to make them work. This article focuses on three attributes which make this entrepreneurial orientation possible.

The present study investigated the impact of an MBO application in a university setting. It was hypothesized that faculty performance levels would be positively affected, while satisfaction levels would not be influenced. A total of 23 faculty from the College of Business and Economics at the University of Idaho completed a questionnaire regarding their perceptions of performance and satisfaction both prior to and after the MBO application. Additionally, data were gathered through archival, nonobtrusive methods (performance records) and interviews with department heads. The results suggest that performance increased as a result of the MBO application, while satisfaction generally declined. Possible reasons for the findings are offered, and implications are discussed.

This article discusses three methods managers can use to make decisions: intuition, management analysis, and Type 1 and Type 2 error analysis. Olson identifies studies that have shown that top managers work at an unrelenting pace and jump from one activity to another. He claims that managers do not have time to plan in a reflective, systematic manner. In fact, in his view, decision makers usually react intuitively to situations that can no longer be ignored. The author presents evidence that top managers prefer verbal media such as telephone calls and meeting for decision making because of their timeliness. He points out that the strategic data bank of the organization is largely in the mind of the manager. As a consequence, he states, an effective analysis requires that the manager communicate to the analyst the relevant data stored in his head. This process often makes it easier for the manager to solve the problem himself rather than delegate it to others. Olson identifies five organizational conditions that enable a top manager to effectively delegate problem solving tasks to management analysts: (1) the analyst must have the confidence of the same people who influence the manager; (2) the analyst must be able to adapt the techniques to the specific needs of the manager; (3) there must be sufficient time for the analyst to structure the problem and evaluate the alternatives; (4) the analyst must share in information gathered by the manager from verbal contacts; and (5) the manager must be part of an organization large enough to make it profitable for him to seek assistance from an analyst. When the above organizational conditions are not met, the author suggests Type 1 and Type 2 error analysis. He promotes this form of analysis as a method for using logic and intuition to consider various forms of information. This management tool is named for Type 1 error (accepting a proposal that should have been rejected) and Type 2 error (rejecting a proposal that should have been accepted). The author advocates the use of this methodology because, in his view, it focuses the attention of the manager on the facts when a decision needs to be made. In this process, the manager must identify and evaluate the likelihood and consequences of each alternative strategy. Olson sees Type 1 and Type 2 error analysis as providing explicit logic to strengthen the intuitive decision making process.

A decision-making model is discussed which can serve as a logical aid or conceptual base for structuring certain problems and implicitly analyzing the available strategies. The method is especially appropriate in situations where a more detailed quantitative analysis has been rejected for reasons such as shortage of time or inaccessibility of data.