Entrepreneurial Strategies in a Declining Industry

Authors

  • William Burpitt Elon University
  • Sally Fowler American University

Abstract

This study explores the strategies of small firms in the North Carolina furniture supply industry, an industry that has suffered significant job loss due to foreign competition. In case studies of 17 firms, managers identified the strategies that they believed would be most effective in confronting the threats of global competition and imports. Entrepreneurial strategies involving development of new products and entry into new markets ranked highest, but most of the firms were employing strategies that emphasized efficiency and focused on existing products and markets. Firms that employed more entrepreneurial strategies reported superior financial performance in terms of revenue growth, suggesting that entrepreneurial strategies were in fact more effective in this declining industry. This research identifies the impediments that prevented firms from employing entrepreneurial strategies, as well as the types of resources the managers believed would be required for successful implementation of entrepreneurial strategies.

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Published

2007-01-20

Issue

Vol. 18 No. 1 (2007)

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Articles

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How to Cite

Entrepreneurial Strategies in a Declining Industry. (2007). Journal of Small Business Strategy (archive Only), 18(1), 69-84. https://libjournals.mtsu.edu/index.php/jsbs/article/view/80