Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Small businesses and entrepreneurial firms are essential for the long term competitiveness of Canada because they contribute significantly to the creation of employment. However, only half of new enterprises survive for 5 years, and by the end of a decade, only 20% are still in operation. It is therefore crucial to better understand decision making in new enterprise formation to increase the likelihood of firm survival. New venture decisions involve the assessment of business prospects, i.e. the decision to accept or reject a prospect. Business prospect assessment has become popular among prospective entrepreneurs, as new technologies are developing at an astonishing rate and technology transfer has been facilitated in numerous institutions. The objective of the proposed research is to better comprehend prospect assessment by improving our understanding of the underlying process of knowledge accumulation and the competitive forces that affect decision makers. For those prospects worth exploiting, the objective is also to examine how the shift from exploration to exploitation may determine a new enterprise's ability to realize a sustainable wealth creation. It follows that market entry strategies and the linking of these three inter-related decision processes - assessment, exploitation and entry, need to be investigated in order to obtain a fuller picture of new enterprise development. This research will expose broader management communities of scholars to the use of mathematical models as a means to invigorate theoretical advancements in new enterprise development. Furthermore, greater understanding of how entrepreneurs can make better decisions, particularly in the hazardous early years, is likely to increase firm survival. Thus, entrepreneurs, providers of capital, and policy makers will also benefit from this research.