Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

3-2024

Abstract

We compare the efficacy of two broad approaches to entrepreneurship training: a training prioritizing demand-side activities versus a training prioritizing resource-side activities. We do so by running a field experiment inside a 6-month entrepreneurship program involving 236 early-stage entrepreneurs. Inspired by our training, the first group invested more time interacting with potential customers and developing a deep understanding of customer needs and problems. The other group, in contrast, spent more time identifying and exploiting their core resources such as their network. Our results reveal that the training prioritizing demand-side activities is substantially more effective. At the end of the program, the group exposed to the demand-side training acquired more than twice the number of customers and generated revenues 65% higher than the other group.

Keywords

demand-side perspective, early-stage entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship training, field experiment, resource based view

Discipline

Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations | Strategic Management Policy

Research Areas

Strategy and Organisation

Publication

Strategic Management Journal

Volume

45

Issue

3

First Page

564

Last Page

587

ISSN

0143-2095

Identifier

10.1002/smj.3560

Publisher

Wiley

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.3560

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