New venture performance : the role of strategy and industry structure /

An innovative attempt to build a prescriptive theory for evaluating new venture performance. After an excellent brief review of research, practices, and theory on entrepreneurs and new ventures, Houston professor of management Sandberg develops 19 propositions for his conceptual framework. These are then tested against a sample of 17 new businesses that he surveyed. A careful statistical analysis of his findings is performed, applying earlier classifications of strategy by Vesper, Porter, and Abell as well as the experiences and practices of venture capitalists. The results are then developed into implications and recommendations for venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, and further academic research. A major contribution is Sandberg's change of the model from NVP = f(E) to a revised NVP = f(IS,S,E), with a careful justification for the change in the role of the entrepreneur. Heavily documented with useful tables of the author's data findings and conclusions. Appendix A contains the business survey data form, and Appendix B summarizes the ventures surveyed. Good index and excellent bibliography. Upper-division and graduate students as well as general audiences.-A.E. Pierce, Lafayette College