Sustaining the

Entrepreneurial Company
in the Twenty-First Century

Chapter 15

Copyright (c) 2011 South-Western/Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

 Introduction
• The true value of entrepreneurship as a managerial
concept lies in the extent to which it helps organizations
create sustainable competitive advantage.
• While some companies struggle to muster even a minimal
amount of entrepreneurial activity, all companies battle
mightily to sustain entrepreneurship over time.
 2-Recognizing & Managing the Triggering
Events

•The trigger provides the impetus to behave

entrepreneurially when other conditions are
conducive to such behavior.
•Kuratko (2009) indicates a stronger need for
entrepreneurial management when the
company is no longer able to make a profit.
Managing the Triggering Events
5 key ways for grouping triggers
• Internal/external source
• Opportunity-driven/threat-driven
• Technology push/market-pull
• Top-down/bottom-up
• Systematic or deliberate search/chance or
opportunism
Examples of “Triggering” Events for CE (Table
15-2)
vCompetitor threat or action
vDeclining market share
vSenior management initiative
vPersonal initiative on the part of one or
more employees
vRising costs
vSupplier requests
 Managing the Triggering Events
A total of 82 entrepreneurial initiatives were identified.
• Internal factors were surprisingly prevalent among the
most frequently mentioned triggers:
• Employee initiative
• A strategic program
• A new growth target
• A new marketing initiative
• Public relations/image
Managing the Triggering Events

The principal external triggers

were:
•specific customer request
•competitor threat
•change in people’s lifestyles or
expectations
Managing the Triggering Events
• By studying the triggering process in their
organizations, managers can gain insights regarding the
triggers to be emphasized under a given set of
circumstances, how resources and incentives should be
allocated to facilitate certain triggers, and ways in
which the organization should be structured so as to
take maximum advantage of particular types of
triggers.
 Building an Adaptive Organization
Entrepreneurial managers can enhance a venture’s chance of
remaining adaptive and innovative by:
• Share the entrepreneurial vision
• Increase the perception of opportunity
• Institutionalize change as the goal
• Instill the desire to be innovative
• Reward system
• An environment that allows for failure
• Flexible operations
• Development of I-Teams
 Creating a Sense of Urgency
• Management must create an environment where
urgency is felt all the time. Urgency in this context refers
to a compelling sense that organizational survival
depends on change.
• Entrepreneurial companies instill in their employees a
burning desire to make things better. People
demonstrate a combination of paranoia,
competitiveness, pride, and obsession.