Abstract
Why do some firms survive and others not? Why do some firms develop faster than others? And why are some firms more profitable than others? These questions are at the heart of strategy and strategy research tries to understand the varying degree of competitiveness of firms. Generally, the outcome variable in strategy research, and thus also research on entrepreneurial strategy, is some form of organizational performance.
This chapter reviews selected literature on entrepreneurship and strategy. We outline what entrepreneurial strategy means and elaborate why and how different understandings of entrepreneurial strategy are tied to different firm contexts and theoretical underpinnings, acknowledging thereby that an entrepreneurial firm is not a small big firm.
Drawing on previous research, we discuss three key issues in this chapter. First, by focusing on the context of liability of newness and smallness (and thus resource scarcity), we define entrepreneurial strategy in a context-specific manner and discuss the transferability of this concept to different contexts. Second, we frame the literature on entrepreneurial behavior in strategy making within the underlying theories, highlighting how they might be contingent on organizational context. Third, based on the tensions and gaps in this research, we develop directions for future research.