This chapter covers the following objectives:

  • The role of opportunities, resources, and entrepreneurs in successfully pursuing new ventures.
  • Three types of entry strategies – pioneering, imitative, and adaptive – commonly used to launch a new venture.
  • How the generic strategies of overall cost leadership, differentiation, and focus are used by new ventures and small businesses.
  • How competitive actions, such as the entry of new competitors into a marketplace, may launch a cycle of actions and reactions among close competitors.
  • The components of competitive dynamics analysis – new competitive action, threat analysis, motivation and capability to respond, types of competitive actions, and likelihood of competitive reaction.