1 INTRODUCTION
A search of Google for “Internet entrepreneur” will retrieve more than 9 million links to blogs, portals and websites about Internet entrepreneurs. The success of several prominent entrepreneurs such as Larry Page, Sergey Brin, David Filo, Jerry Yang and Jeff Bezos has become the inspiration to others to become Internet entrepreneurs, but not all would become successful in the long term. Apart from the pioneers, there are, however, others – such as Dany Levy, David Liu, Reed Hastings, and Alex Algard – who are also successful and have survived in the long term. It seems that the strategies adopted by successful Internet entrepreneurs have enabled them to sustain their businesses better than those who have failed. This raises several questions regarding how Internet entrepreneurs survive and became successful in the long term. How did these Internet entrepreneurs choose appropriate strategies and continue to be successful? How did they devise strategies that resulted in the success of their firms after start up? What types of processes did they adopt to set up their strategies? Do they have any preferences for certain approaches to formulate their long term strategic decision making beyond start up? Are there any differences between these successful entrepreneurs when they develop their strategies after start up?
These questions raise a major question as to how Internet entrepreneurs actually develop their post start up strategies. Hence, the aim of this study is to explore how Internet entrepreneurs formulate their strategies beyond start up. Five types of strategy formation process adapted from Mintzberg’s ten schools of thought are being used to conduct in-depth analysis of strategy process for fifteen success...
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... through the process of learning over time. The strategies in this case will appear “first as patterns out of the past, then as plans for the future and ultimately as perspectives to guide overall behaviour” (pp. 208-209). Therefore the next question will be:
What is the extent to which strategy following start up is formed by Internet entrepreneurs through an emergent learning process?
2.2 Theoretical Framework
These detailed research questions will help to clarify how Internet entrepreneurs develop their strategy after start up. Combining the frameworks used by Mintzberg et al. (1998) and Rialp-Criado et al. (2010) and the questions posed, seven types of processes are proposed; transformation, rational, intuitive, individual, social, emergent learning and reactive vs. proactive processes to explore strategy process of the Internet entrepreneur in Table 1.
Question/Section #2 Why and how are these strategies creative? Do these strategies correspond with stages of development mentioned in the textbook?
Nowadays, the popularities of the internet do change people’s life and even influence the strategy of a company. The article “Strategy and the Internet” authored by Michael Porter presents a few constructive opinions towards companies using the Internet for business that tells company should not lose the focus on building strategic development and competitive advantage. In the article, Michael Porter demonstrated that “the Internet is an extremely important technology, but it has made it difficult for companies to remain profitable over an extended time period”. (Porter, 2001) And internet leads many businesses “distort their market signals and competitive advantage”. (Porter, 2001) It is obvious that company tend to different from other which only focus on price strategies rather than through traditional methods of differentiation. (Porter, 2001) Throughout this article, Porter mainly aim to demonstrated that the Internet will weaken company’s profitability without providing proper operational advantages, because the proper use of internet will add value and increase company’s traditional competitive advantage, but it is unlikely for company to replace it. (Porter, 2001)
In 1994, Internet commerce (e-commerce) was miniscule. One day in the spring of 1994, Bezos who was already crazy about computers observed that Internet usage was increasing geometrically and more and more people were getting excited about its astounding commercial possibilities. A few inventors were already trying to make use of the new technology. Bezos saw an opportunity for a new sphere of commerce, and immediately began considering the possibilities. The thought foremost in his mind: "What is it that users cannot get easily offline that will sell online?"
Arthur, A., Thompson, Margaret, A., Peteraf, John, E. Gamble, A., J., Strickland III. (2014). Crafting & Executing Strategy: The Quest for Competitive Advantage 19e: Concepts & Cases. C6-C25.
Numerous definitions of strategy exist, in most circumstances strategy can loosely be explained as an overall plan of deployment of resources to ascertain a favourable position within a market (Zablah, Bellenger and Johnston 2004; Grant 1994, p 14). Further, imbedded in many successful organisations are strategies, the importance of which is to remain relevant in the market, and successful in the various attributes of business; profiteering, employee motivation, maintaining sustainable core competencies, effectiveness in operation, or efficiency in the conduction of operations. Therefore challenges involved in the formulation and implementation of a strategy can revolve around the overall external market, as well as internal
VERMEULEN, P. A. M. & CURSEU, P. L. 2008. Entrepreneurial Strategic Decision-making: A Cognitive Perspective. United Kingdom: Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd.
New online retail brand e.g. Amazon, Lastminute.com - Essentially these companies could not have been conceived without the creation of the Internet. New companies sprang up as the Internet began to be adopted. Entrepreneurs were investing heavily in all sorts of start-ups. Some were successes, most were not. [pic]
Thompson, A.A., Strickland, A.J., & Gamble, J. E. (2010). Crafting and executing strategy: The quest for competitive advantage: Concepts and cases: 2009 custom edition (17th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill-Irwin
The Internet and international business is an interesting topic- discussing an area of business that will probably be around for many years and possibly centuries to come. Since its earliest days, the Internet has been a means of communication, an essential tool in almost instant communication.
Although individual definitions of strategy vary between each author, traditionally, theorists have considered planning an essential part of organizational strategy. “Strategic planning in organizations originated in the 1950s and was very popular and widespread between mid-1960s to mid-1970s, when people believed it was the answer for all problems, and corporate America was obsessed with strategic planning. Following that boom strategic planning had fallen off and was cast aside for over a decade. The 1990s brought the revival of strategic planning as a process with particular benefits in particular contexts” (Mintzberg, 1994).
Strategic renewal is another desired outcome of corporate entrepreneurship. The new economic order and business environment has created a pace of change which requires businesses to adapt more frequently and rapidly than ever before. The changes could involve corporate structure, mergers and acquisitions, addressing new market opportunities, changing product portfolios, repositioning, adapting infrastructure, or adopting new technology. Managers in an organization must be able to take stock of its situation under changing market conditions and agree on a coherent new strategy that will meet the challenges of the present as well as of the future.
In the first stage of growth, the founders of an organization develop skills and create new products. Learning is a huge component of this phase of organizational growth. Entrepreneurs learn what works and what doesn’t. People’s behaviors are governed by organizational culture rather than by hierarchy (Jones, 2010).
The field of young entrepreneurs looking to create their own success in the business world is rife with digital and app based start-ups. In fact, if you were to sit down 100 business students and asked them what their big business idea was, odds are plenty of them would take the form of a digitally based product. There is no doubt that success can be found in such realm, history tells us that, but many young entrepreneurs are finding that there is still plenty of life in so-called ‘traditional sectors’.
We learned a lot of things in this course, but I think the most important lesson I learned is that it’s not easy to be an entrepreneur. I was surprised to hear in the first class that 80% of startups fail, but after reading The Art of Start and E-myth Revisited I understood why this happens more often than one might expects. Some people start their own businesses for the wrong reason and some start with wrong mindset. I’ve always thought that if someone has a brilliant business idea and hardworking they will succeed and grow their business. However, now I know that there are many things to consider before starting any business. In fact, there are many strategies that an entrepreneur could follow to achieve success, such as know your customers, work “on” the business, and how
As stated above, supported by Mathis R.L and Jackson, J.H (2012), the strategic plan of an organization emanates from its vision and mission. Such plans are reached after due consideration of the factors which affect the success or otherwise of the processes and outcomes of such plans. These factors are both internal (the strengths and weaknesses available in the resources; both human and material within the organization) and external (the threats and opportunities available outside the organization; dynamism of the business world, globalization trend, the impact of information and communication technologies on world business). As mentioned by Whittington (2001) cited by Pilbeam & Corbridge (2010), senior managers who come up with strategies for their organization should do so considering two dimension; the processes of such strategies and the outcomes. According to him, the processes are either deliberate or emergent while the outcomes are either profit maximization or pluralist in nature (including other goals and interests of the organization). In my under...