Adaptation and Resource Management in the Small-Medium Firm

Abstract

This paper seeks to provide some practical insights into how smaller firms can grow. At the same time, it questions the current emphasis on entrepreneurship as ’the relentless pursuit of opportunity without regard to resources currently controlled’. To achieve its objective, the paper locates the growth challenge for small firms in the initial resource conditions they set up for themselves through successful start-up, and suggests that more radical product-market initiatives are generated in response to internal resource issues. Primary orientation to the external environment drives only incremental development.