After the startup: A collection to spur research about entrepreneurial growth

Abstract

Entrepreneurship researchers have made great strides toward understanding who discovers and/or creates opportunities, how they validate a business model, and how they attract resources, but far less is known about what happens next. Beyond gathering resources, how do entrepreneurs build a growing organization once customer enthusiasm has been demonstrated? What has been learned is fragmented across theoretical perspectives and activities related to growth. We describe a collection of articles that spotlight different theories and organize the articles according to key activities: (1) building internal resources and capabilities, (2) leveraging partnerships, (3) taking strategic actions, and (4) managing interactions among resources, partners, and actions. Juxtaposing these activities with theories from the collection, we offer a research agenda designed to spur research to fill gaps in understanding of how entrepreneurs successfully manage growth.The period of an organization's development between the startup stage and becoming an established firm presents unique challenges. We spotlight a set of articles that have provided insights into how organizations can overcome these challenges. We then add our own perspective by providing research ideas that scholars can investigate in order to generate additional insights.