Demand pull versus resource push training approaches to entrepreneurship: A field experiment

Simone Santamaria · Niloofar Abolfathi · Ishtiaq Pasha Mahmood

20 citations0/0 files storedStrategic Management Journal

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Entrepreneurship Studies and Influences Business Strategies and Innovation Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy

Abstract

Abstract Research Summary We compare the efficacy of two broad approaches to entrepreneurship training: a training prioritizing demand‐side activities versus a training prioritizing resource‐side activities. We do so by running a field experiment inside a 6‐month entrepreneurship program involving 236 early‐stage entrepreneurs. Inspired by our training, the first group invested more time interacting with potential customers and developing a deep understanding of customer needs and problems. The other group, in contrast, spent more time identifying and exploiting their core resources such as their network. Our results reveal that the training prioritizing demand‐side activities is substantially more effective. At the end of the program, the group exposed to the demand‐side training acquired more than twice the number of customers and generated revenues 65% higher than the other group. Managerial Summary In this paper, we aim to identify effective practices for supporting nascent entrepreneurs amidst the proliferation of entrepreneurship training programs. In particular, we launched a 6‐month entrepreneurship program involving 236 early‐stage entrepreneurs and exposed them to different training approaches. We discovered that a training approach focused on demand‐side activities, such as identifying customer persona, collecting reliable customer information, and interpreting their feedback, is more effective in improving new venture performance than a training approach focused on resource‐side activities such as helping entrepreneurs identify and leverage their resources and capabilities. Our findings emphasize the importance of developing skills related to customer analysis, market understanding, and collecting customer feedback during the early stages of a startup journey and can provide insights for designing effective entrepreneurship programs.

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References

1991Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage 2004Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage 2000The Promise of Entrepreneurship as a Field of Research 2009Business Models, Business Strategy and Innovation 2010Business Model Generation : A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers 2001Is the Resource-Based "View" a Useful Perspective for Strategic Management Research?2011The lean startup : how today's entrepreneurs use continuous innovation to create radically successful businesses 2001Causation and Effectuation: Toward a Theoretical Shift from Economic Inevitability to Entrepreneurial Contingency

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