Abstract
Colette Fourcade lectures at the University of Montpellier, France, and has been carrying out research into the phase in the life of a small company which starts when the firm produces its first commercial output or when it receives its first orders and covers the first three to five years of existence before the firm starts to take off. This has been described as the "demarrage" or D-phase. This paper is based on a survey carried out by the Equipe de Recherche sur la Firme et l'Industrie (ERFI) at Montpellier University in the Languedoc-Rousillion region of France, Morocco, Tunisia and the State of Maine in the United States, and examines the experience and problems of companies in the D-phase in those countries.
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