Profiles in Small Business: A Competitive Strategy Approach

Book Description
Profiles in Small Business considers how small firms achieve competitive advantages in the marketplace. Using rich primary source data, the book presents 17 detailed profiles on diverse small businesses within a three year time frame. Each profile shows how an entrepreneur has tried to achieve a competitive advantage in the marketplace by fighting against the forces of extended rivalry. The book also discusses reasons for cash flow problems and difficulties associated with excessive ``gearing.'' The book offers a rigorous, non-technical treatment with tables and schemes illustrating the text. The authors apply a common framework in all the examples and keep their analysis well grounded in the reality of small business existence. The book is a companion volume to Small Business Enterprise.


About the Author
Gavin C. Reid is Professor of Economics at the University of St. Andrews, U.K. Lowell Jacobsen is Associate Professor of Economics at William Jewell College, Missouri. Margo E. Anderson is Research Associate at the University of St. Andrews.


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This book presents case material on modern small business enterprises, in the form of novel Profiles. These are constructed on a consistent basis for seventeen small firms, using a modern framework drawn from business strategy and industrial organization. Each Profile shows how an entrepreneur has tried to achieve a competitive advantage in the marketplace by fighting against the forces of 'extended rivalry': market competitors, buyers, suppliers, substitutes and potential entrants. As well as looking at competitive and defensive strategies, the book extends analysis to financial structure, including discussion of reasons for cash flow problems and problems associated with excessive 'gearing'. A comparative analysis of the Profiles, grouped according to the degree of market concentration and associated market structure, enables new conclusions to be reached about sources of competitive advantage. The authors of this book bring to it varied insight from managerial economics, industrial organization and small firms' consultancy. Their guiding light in writing this book was that the analysis should always be well-grounded in the reality of small business existence. This well-grounded approach helps them reach conclusions on a highly practical and useful level.


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