COLLEGE OF BUSINESS, ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

COURSEWORK SUBMISSION COVERSHEET - 2016/17

Coursework MUST be submitted online via Blackboard Learn under the relevant
modular/study block/assessment block course page.

1745471
Student Number:

Module Code: MG5592

Entrepreneurship
Module Title:
Zoi Pittaki
Module Tutor:

Assessment Number/Name: Final Assessment

e.g. Coursework 1, Coursework 2,
Presentation, Final Assessment

I confirm that I understand a complete submission of coursework is by one electronic copy

of my assignment via Blackboard Learn. I understand that assignments must be
submitted by the deadline in order to achieve an uncapped grade. Separate guidelines
apply to reassessed work. Please see the University Late Submission Policy for details.

Any coursework or examined submission for assessment where plagiarism, collusion or

any form of cheating is suspected will be dealt with according to the University processes
which are detailed in Senate Regulation 6.

You can access information about plagiarism here.

The University regulations on plagiarism apply to published as well as unpublished work,

collusion and the plagiarism of the work of other students.

Please ensure that you fully understand what constitutes plagiarism before you submit
your work.

I confirm that I have read and understood the guidance on plagiarism. I also confirm that I
have neither plagiarised in this coursework, nor allowed my own work to be plagiarised.
The submission of this coversheet is confirmation that you have read and understood the above statements.
Table of Contents
Introduction: .................................................................................................................... 3
Aims and objectives: ......................................................................................................... 3
Methodology:................................................................................................................... 3
Critical Analysis: ............................................................................................................... 4
Conclusion: ....................................................................................................................... 7
References : ...................................................................................................................... 8
Title: Entrepreneurship

Introduction:

Entrepreneurial networks refer to social organizations that help the entrepreneurs to improve
their business by providing them with the resources to make the business successful.
(Todeva, 2006). The sole purpose of these entrepreneurial networks is to bring together
professionals and resources that help to complement each other’s roles in order to achieve
growth. Our economic system is built on constant growth. One of the prominent roles of the
business is to expand its operations in order to make profit. (Hatala ,2007).Firms grow in
different ways and use different growth strategies. Growth strategies are important for a
business because it helps in making the product line better, increases turnover and allows the
business to grow by acquiring or merging with another business. When we talk about
entrepreneurship growth, there are a number of ways in which entrepreneurs make decisions
to expand the business operations in order to achieve their goals. (Lechner, Dowling &
Welpe, 2005). There are numerous benefits that entrepreneurs gain if they grow these would
include economies of scale, becoming market leaders etc.

Aims and objectives:

Our main focus in this study is to give a literature review on entrepreneurial growth, for this
purpose eight articles have been studied to support how entrepreneurial networks are
developed by taking into account different strategies of growth. The main strategies which
have been highlighted below take into account the external and internal resources, leadership
and cognition of entrepreneurs, internal knowledge and business incubation that play a
crucial mechanism in promoting entrepreneurial growth.

Methodology:

To conduct a literature review, eight articles have been analysed. The databases used to find
these journals include Brunel Library, Google Scholar and Jstor. The articles that have been
examined from the year 2013 to 2018 and have been taken from the 2015 ABS journal list.
All these articles which have been taken from the 2015 ABS journals have the top rankings.
These academic journals include International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and
Research, International Small Business Journal, journal of business venturing, Journal of
Small Business Management, Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development,
Strategic Management Journal. These journals consist of many sub articles which have been
carefully reviewed to carry out this study. Additionally, the keywords use to find these
articles include entrepreneurial growth, entrepreneurial networks, strategies of entrepreneurs,
growth tactics of entrepreneurs.

Critical Analysis:
The article written by Koryak, Mole, Lockett, Hayton, Ucbasaran and Hodgkinson in 2015
has been taken from International Small Business Journal. This article emphasises entirely
upon the internal capabilities that help to achieve entrepreneurial growth. Qualitative research
has been carried out for this research to make comparisons to see if motivation or cognition
plays a vital role to help in expanding entrepreneurial network. The cognitive mindsets of
leaders have been defined that help in directing and influencing the employees to achieve the
goals set by the leaders that help to exploit the entrepreneurial opportunities. (Gupta et al.,
2004). When cognition is studied under the aspect of entrepreneurial behaviour, it basically
refers to mental models which means how these entrepreneurs make decisions, peruse
opportunities, how they create value and assess people. (Mitchell et al., 2002).Furthermore
the article describes that entrepreneurial leaders have a greater impact on the organizational
outcome as well as the people working under them through motivation as well. (Carpenter et
al., 2004) These entrepreneurial leaders make decisions that influence the strategies that helps
the business to grow. Also, these entrepreneurial leaders have more knowledge and
experience when it comes to business, they can identify the opportunities and look before
they leap in expanding the business (Gruber et al., 2008). Secondly, motivation plays a vital
role as discussed in the goal setting theory, challenging and specified goals result in higher
performance that can help them expand an entrepreneurial network. (Locke and Latham,
2002).

While the article written by Wright, and Stigliani in 2013 from international small business
journal also focuses upon the entrepreneur’s cognition that helps to configure the resources in
order to achieve growth by doing a qualitative research. Study based on entrepreneurial
cognition highlights that entrepreneurs use knowledge differently as compare to non-
entrepreneurs who make sense of the information or decisions entrusted upon them (Fiske
and Taylor, 1991). Both the studies emphasise upon the cognition of entrepreneurs however
in this article more emphasis is upon self-efficacy that plays an important role to achieve
entrepreneurial growth, this is because entrepreneurs value the judgements, make
assessments, and identify opportunities to achieve growth. The only difference in the
previous article was that it mainly focused upon the leadership capabilities of an entrepreneur
but in this article every entrepreneur is labelled as a leader who value the judgements, make
assessments, and identify opportunities to achieve growth. Similarly, these studies
emphasises upon the mental models of entrepreneurs who make use of information by
identifying the changes in market, this concept is known as entrepreneurial alertness.(Gaglio
and Katz, 2001 ) Both these articles state that every entrepreneur thinks different, the more
successful ones have a more complexed and more adaptive schema script that allows them to
exploit a situation in which they can gain advantage. (Smith et al., 2009; Westhead et al.,
2009). Similarly evaluating opportunities is a critical process for entrepreneurs especially
when there is complexity and uncertainty. (Allinson et al., 2000). If the perceived risk is
impacting the business greatly, entrepreneurs evaluate the ideas available and make the
decisions according to the idea which has the least risk involved. Research suggest that
cognitive biases influences the entrepreneurs significantly. (e.g. Simon et al., 2000). There
are two biases found which include of control and the risk perception in opportunity
evaluation that determine the decision of an entrepreneur that helps in achieving growth.
Hence the decisions taken by entrepreneurs to grow is greatly influenced by the cognition.
(Haynie et al., 2010) Another article written by Mitchelmore, and Rowley from journal of
small businesses and enterprise development conducted the study on woman’s cognition as
entrepreneurs. This study helped to form an analysis on the competencies of entrepreneurs
who are women and how they make use of their business-related education in order to make
business decision in the current market. Information marketing businesses could better focus
their educational tools to meet the women’s competency needs by identifying the
entrepreneurial competencies of this subset of women. Studies have depicted that women
who are entrepreneurs have specific aspects of their competencies and sometimes they are
better than men. For instance, women have social adroitness in their personalities and are far
more superior in interpersonal skills. (Birley et al., 1987). For this purpose a questionnaire
was designed to conduct a survey on female entrepreneurs in England and Wales. This survey
helped to reveal the findings based on four main competencies including personal and
relationship, business and management, human relation and entrepreneurial competencies.
Thus female Entrepreneur Competence (FEC) framework highlights the importance of
competencies that helps the business to grow. In particular these three articles reflect upon
strategies of cognition and motivation which further allows them to adopt to the cognitive
processes in the business environment. This allows them to make all the investment decisions
that help them to achieve entrepreneurial growth.

The article written by Obeng, Robson, and Haugh in 2014 from international small business
journal demonstrate the concepts which are derived from strategic entrepreneurship that has
given emergency to small firm growth models. A sample of 441 entrepreneurs has been
collected in Ghana to study entrepreneur growth. The study conducted shows a positive
relationship between the characteristics of an entrepreneur and the firm’s growth. In addition
to this the article highlights the complimentary link between strategic management and
entrepreneurs’ internal characteristics. (Hitt and Ireland, 2001) stated that the capabilities of
leaders, research and innovation techniques, governance, performance of senior management,
organizational learning all played a vital role to grow the firm’s size. All the strategic
decision taken by the managers or leaders help the companies to achieve competitive
advantage thus promoting growth. This article has demonstrated theories such as resource-
based theory that firm’s growth is influenced by the amount of resources that are
administered by the management that helps to identify opportunities for expansion. It is
important for a firm to have a good mix of all resources such as the finance, physical and
human capital in order to compete in the market. Secondly another theory discussed is on
“noisy” selection that proposed that the firms that are efficient tend to survive and grow while
the inefficient ones fail. Entrepreneurs lack the abilities when they start the business, with
time they learn and develop their abilities that helps the business to grow. Parker (2004) An
entrepreneur with a good strategic decision is focused on allocating the resources efficiently,
identifying the opportunities and helps in creating valuable outcomes that helps in achieving
entrepreneurial growth.

On the other hand, the article published by Eshima and Anderson in 2017 from the strategic
management journal emphasise upon the adaptive capabilities that refer to the external
characteristics of firms which help achieve growth in organizations. (Lock et al., 2011).
When a firm increases its adaptive capability, it helps to bring a change in the product, this
way the firm is using its existing resources and also expands their product portfolio by
potentially meeting the market requirements. (Shane, 2000). Hence the new product with this
new combination of resources helps the firms to grow, they can recognize the needs in the
market as well as develop products that create value for customers. In the previous article, the
internal characteristics of an entrepreneur help to develop strategies however in this article
more emphasises is upon the external and adaptive capabilities influence the decisions of a
manager as well as the entrepreneur. In this journal data was collect from 600 South Korean
businesses that were selected randomly from a Korean trade organization. The survey that
was conducted was based on the factor analysis that revealed that adaptive capabilities of a
firm not only helps them to grow but also helps them to gain a competitive environment.
Both these articles state that entrepreneurial growth requires a modest attitude of mangers
towards risk, this is because a marginal positive attitude would result in increasing the
adaptability within the firm and help to develop characteristics that play a crucial role as the
business environment keeps changing, firms have to adapt in order to achieve growth.

The article written by Furlan, Grandinetti, and Paggiaro in 2014 is taken from the journal of
entrepreneurial behaviour and research provides an evidence that firms that are growth
oriented usually make use of external resources in order to grow beyond limits. These
growth-oriented firms enjoy external resources such as financial capital, market knowledge
that help them to make decisions that promote growth aspects. Entrepreneurial growth occurs
when firms can enjoy the new growth opportunities that helps them to establish new inter-
organizational relationships. Similarly, inter-organizational relationship play a vital role in
entrepreneurial growth when managed and acquired efficiently. (Furlan et al., 2009; Freel,
2000; Lechner and Dowling, 2003; Lechner et al., 2006). An empirical evidence of the
findings has been demonstrated by collecting using AIDA as a database which provides
economic as well as financial records of approximately 950,000 Italian companies. A
longitudinal approach has been used to study the data as the research has been carried for
three years. In addition to this external resource are considered the driving factor to achieve
entrepreneurial growth however these external resources could also act as a barrier and limit
the size of the growth. For instance, if the process of growth is hybrid, this would result in
agency problem and goal conflicts.

Similarly, the article written by Lukeš, Longo, and Zouhar study was published recently in
2018 by journal of business venturing, this article is also based on the external resources of
financing which takes into account the role of business incubators. The study conducted
examines the short term as well as the long-term effect of business incubators on the
performance of firms, for this 2544 Italian start-ups were chosen out of which 606 were
incubated. Business incubators provide buffering and bridging to entrepreneurs. (Amezcua et
al., 2013) Buffering helps these new entrepreneurs in this way that they are provided with the
resources they lack in and bridging facilitates in making the entrepreneurs to network with
the protentional business partners. Both the articles suggest that external sources of finance
help the entrepreneurs to grow, business incubators know that their ideals are at the initial
stage and they know that these companies would be able to survive in the market. (Bergek
and Norrman, 2008). Also, apart from providing them with financial assistance, incubators
provide entrepreneurial ventures with training, coaching that would help them to build
internal as well as external networks to enhance opportunities for growth. (Carayannis et al.
2005) Both the studies help us to analyse that external resources play a vital role in
expanding the entrepreneurial networks by providing financial as well expanding assistance.
Another article by Naldia and Davidson in 2014 from Journal of Business Venturing, their
work is based on Penrose’s theory which takes into account the opportunities for
entrepreneurial growth is through domestic as well as international market. This article is also
based on the external resources that helps entrepreneurial networks to grow. The growth path
is acquired through new knowledge which is grasped from international market which has a
stronger affect as compare to the entrepreneurial growth is domestic market. (Sapienza, De
Clercq and Sandberg, 2005) Penrose’s theory has addressed the theoretical framework for
the process of growth that illustrates that growth of business based on its resources and the
changes in the business structure. Growth in a business is achieved when new products and
services are launched, and geographical markets are targeted to expand the business, this way
customers are given more choice and provides incumbents an incentive to become better and
attracts other firms to follow the same process. (Davidsson et al., 2009) In addition to this
acquisition of knowledge is one of the key enabling factors that help entrepreneurs to exploit
the market by developing new and innovative products. When a lot of time is spent
researching on new things, it helps to expand the production process as well as helps the
managers to pursue new opportunities for the growth of the business. Similarly,
entrepreneurial growth is also achieved by acquisition of knowledge from international
markets, it helps the entrepreneurs to attain information regarding the new trends in the
market, technological research and all the questions related to the product such as producing,
distributing and the selling the good in the market. (Shepherd and Wiklund, 2009) In this
journal a longitudinal study was conduct in Sweden in which a survey of 885 international
SME’s was conducted which proved that entrepreneurial growth can be attained by acquiring
knowledge from the international market.

Conclusion:

The critical review of the study significantly highlights that the internal as well as the
external resources plays a crucial mechanism to help achieve growth. It should be taken into
account that knowledge acquisition is very important for entrepreneurs to identify the market
gaps and seek opportunities to expand their business. Similarly, entrepreneurs should also
focus upon the internal and external resources that helps them to build entrepreneurial
networks in domestic and also in the international market. In particular entrepreneurs should
also seek help from business incubators as they can help the entrepreneurs who are struggling
to survive in the market by providing them with financial or human assistance. Lastly,
entrepreneurs should be able to make the right decisions, this is based on their cognition; all
these factors attempt to promote growth strategies in entrepreneurial networks. However, it
should be taken into account that growth strategies in entrepreneurial networks would have
its pitfalls. There would be loss of control when a business expands, decisions making
autonomy becomes stressful and the chain of command disrupts. Similarly, managers might
have low moral because of work overload and this would increase the staff turnover. Also,
entrepreneurs might feel that they have to compromise on quality when they partner with
other firms, this may spoil the reputation of the company and may result in business failure.

References :

Allinson, C, Chell, E, Hayes, J. (2000) Intuition and entrepreneurial behavior. European

Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology 9(1), pp. 31–43.

Amezcua, A., Grimes, M., Bradley, S. and Wiklund, J. (2013). Organizational Sponsorship
and Founding Environments: A Contingency View on the Survival of Business-Incubated
Firms, 1994–2007. Academy of Management Journal, 56(6), pp.1628-1654.

Bergek, A. and Norrman, C. (2008). Incubator best practice: A framework. Technovation,

28(1-2), pp.20-28.

Carayannis, E. and von Zedtwitz, M. (2005). Architecting gloCal (global–local), real-virtual

incubator networks (G-RVINs) as catalysts and accelerators of entrepreneurship in
transitioning and developing economies: lessons learned and best practices from current
development and business incubation practices. Technovation, 25(2), pp.95-110.

Carpenter, MA, Geletkanycz, MA, Sanders, WG (2004) Upper echelons research revisited:
Antecedents, elements and consequences of top management team composition. Journal of
Management 30(6), pp.749–778.

Coglister, CC, Brigham, KH (2004) The intersection of leadership and entrepreneurship:

Mutual lessons to be learnt. Leadership Quarterly 15(6), pp. 771–799.

Davidsson P., Steffens P., Fitzsimmons J. Growing profitable or growing from profits:
Putting the horse in front of the cart? Journal of Business Venturing 2009; 24: 388-406

Ensley, MD, Pearce, CL, Hmieleski, KM (2006) The moderating effect of environmental
dynamism on the relationship between entrepreneur leadership behavior and new venture
performance. Journal of Business Venturing 21(2), pp. 243–263

Eshima, Y. and Anderson, B. (2016). Firm growth, adaptive capability, and entrepreneurial
orientation. Strategic Management Journal, 38(3), pp.770-779.
Furlan, A., Grandinetti, R. and Paggiaro, A. (2014). Unveiling the growth process:
entrepreneurial growth and the use of external resources. International Journal of
Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, 20(1), pp.20-41.

Gaglio, CM, Katz, JA (2001) The psychological basis of opportunity identification:

Entrepreneurial alertness. Small Business Economics 16(2), pp. 95–111.

Gruber, M, MacMillan, IC, Thompson, JD (2008) Look before you leap: Market opportunity
identification in emerging technology firms. Management Science 54(9), pp.1652–1665.

Gupta, V, MacMillan, IC, Surie, G (2004) Entrepreneurial leadership: Developing and

measuring a cross-cultural construct. Journal of Business Venturing 19(2), pp. 241–260

Haynie, JM, Shepherd, DA, Mosakowski, E. (2010) A situated metacognitive model of the
entrepreneurial mindset. Journal of Business Venturing 25(2), pp. 217–229

Hitt, M., Ireland, R., Camp, S. and Sexton, D. (2001). Strategic entrepreneurship:
entrepreneurial strategies for wealth creation. Strategic Management Journal, 22(6-7),
pp.479-491.

Hatala, J (2007), Assessing Social Capital Capacity: The Development of a Network

Accessibility Scale, Louisiana State University

Keh, H, Foo, M, Lim, B (2002) Opportunity evaluation under risky conditions: the cognitive
processes of entrepreneursEntrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 27(2), pp.125–150.

Koryak, O. et al. (2015) ‘Entrepreneurial leadership, capabilities and firm

growth’, International Small Business Journal, 33(1), pp. 89–105.

Lockett, A. , Wiklund, J. , Davidsson, P. and Girma, S. (2010), “Organic and acquisitive

growth: re-examining, testing and extending Penrose's growth theory”, Journal of
Management Studies,48(1), pp. 48-74

Lukeš, M., Longo, M. and Zouhar, J. (2018). Do business incubators really enhance
entrepreneurial growth? Evidence from a large sample of innovative Italian start-
ups. Technovation.

Lechner, C., Dowling,M., & Welpe, I. (2005), Firm networks and firm development: The role
of relational mix. Journal of Business Venturing,(20).

Locke, E, Latham, GP (2002) Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task
motivation: A 35 year odyssey. American Psychologist 57(9) pp. 705–717.

McKelvie, A. and Wiklund, J. (2010), “Advancing firm growth research: a focus on

growth mode instead of growth rate”, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 34(2),
pp. 261-288.
Mitchell, R, Busenitz, L, Lant, T. (2002) Toward a theory of entrepreneurial cognition:
Rethinking the people side of entrepreneurship research. Entrepreneurship Theory and
Practice 27(2), pp.93–104.

Mitchelmore, S. and Rowley, J. (2013). Entrepreneurial competencies of women

entrepreneurs pursuing business growth. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise
Development, 20(1), pp.125-142.

Naldi, L. and Davidsson, P. (2014). Entrepreneurial growth: The role of international

knowledge acquisition as moderated by firm age. Journal of Business Venturing, 29(5),
pp.687-703.

Obeng, B. A., Robson, P. and Haugh, H. (2014) ‘Strategic entrepreneurship and small firm
growth in Ghana’, International Small Business Journal, 32(5), pp. 501–524.

Parker, SC (2004) The Economics of Self-employment and

Entrepreneurship. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Sapienza, H., De Clercq, D. and Sandberg, W. (2005). Antecedents of international and

domestic learning effort. Journal of Business Venturing, 20(4), pp.437-457.

Shepherd, D. and Wiklund, J. (2009). Are We Comparing Apples With Apples or Apples
With Oranges? Appropriateness of Knowledge Accumulation Across Growth
Studies. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 33(1), pp.105-123.

Simon, M, Houghton, SM, Aquino, K (2000) Cognitive biases, risk perception and venture
formation: How individuals decide to start companies. Journal of Business Venturing 15,
pp.113–134

Smith, JB, Mitchell, JR, Mitchell, RK (2009) Entrepreneurial scripts and the new transaction
commitment mindset: Extending the expert information processing theory approach to
entrepreneurial cognition research. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 33, pp. 815–844

Todeva, E. (2006) Business Networks: Strategy and Structure. New York: Taylor & Francis.

Wright, M. and Stigliani, I. (2013) ‘Entrepreneurship and growth’, International Small

Business Journal, 31(1), pp. 3–22. doi: 10.1177/0266242612467359.