The Business Platform: Developing an Instrument to Gauge and to Assist the Development of Young Firms
Posted: 28 Oct 2009
Date Written: 2003
Abstract
The development of a quantifiable, holistic, and research-based instrument for assessing and assisting the development of newly-started firms is described.The purpose of the instrument is to quantify a firm's state on each of eight cornerstones that constitute a business platform, including formulation and clarification of a business idea; development to finished product; and definition of market. The instrument is based on Klofsten's Business Platform model, which built on previous scholarship on qualitative research and business consulting and which has been disseminated in research, education, trade, and industry in Europe. The data gathered for this study derived from technology- and knowledge-based firms in Swedish technopolies. Surveys were sent to 313 firms; 114 responded. The firms were 10 years old and younger, with an average age between 6.7 and 7 years. The results were evaluated according to measurement cornerstones such as internal non-response, distributions of response, market, and organization. The attempt to create a formal operationalization of the business platform model was successful. Although the model was based on extensive literature review and qualitative research, further experiments are needed to evaluate the suitability of the model and the instrument for prediction and corrective action.(CBS)
Keywords: Firm performance, Knowledge-based firms, Experimental/primary research, Business models, Economic indicators, Evaluation methods, Firm growth, Product development, Organizational structures, Market growth, Core competencies, Motivation, Customer relations, Startups, Stakeholders
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