Actions of Two Entrepreneurs in Growth-oriented Business Development

Abstract

This article considers the balance between entrepreneurial and strategic actions in business development. Entrepreneurial action focuses on creating new business opportunities, and strategic action focuses on developing effective everyday business actions related to a firm’s existing business opportunity. The article employs a longitudinal multiple case study of business development of two growth-oriented Finnish information and communications technology (ICT) entrepreneurs from the perspective of strategic entrepreneurship (SE). Our findings show that when our case entrepreneurs focus more on emphasizing the effectiveness of existing business opportunity exploitation, they are more likely to follow this kind of logic in the context of an established firm but they are less likely to follow it in the context of a start-up. While it is difficult to specify the optimal mix, the balance between entrepreneurial and strategic actions, entrepreneurs need to devote enough energy to opportunity-seeking actions to ensure a firm’s future viability, and they must simultaneously engage in sufficient advantage-seeking actions to ensure the firm’s current viability.