A conceptual strategy crafting approach for the special case of the independent, growth-oriented, entrepreneurial startup venture

Despite the recognized importance of entrepreneurial new ventures to the economy, at present there are no known models available to assist the independent visionary entrepreneur in the critical crafting of a creative idea into a new venture strategy, or to provide convenient access to the relevant academic concepts that could aid this task. The axial proposition of this dissertation is that a properly designed entrepreneurial strategy crafting approach that presents the "right" academic concepts on strategy, applied at the "right" decision points in the strategy crafting art will compliment the independent entrepreneur's tacit knowledge and yield an enhanced new venture strategy.; This research study represents a three-step approach to the design of a conceptual entrepreneurial strategy crafting approach. The first step is the conduct of an extensive survey of the intersection set of entrepreneurial new venture and strategic management literature to identify the key academic concepts related to entrepreneurial strategy crafting. The second step is the design of a conceptual strategy crafting approach with appropriate decision points for incorporating relevant academic concepts. The third step is the design and implementation of research methodology to test the proposed conceptual design and the relevant academic concepts. This methodology includes: two interactive presentation-discussion forums, to test the overall design concept, and a mixed methods methodology approach consisting of a primary quantitative survey of entrepreneurs and a secondary qualitative Delphi survey of venture capital managers.; The results of the design research generally served to confirm the viability of the proposed design for independent entrepreneur use. The results of the mixed methods research on relevant academic concepts had varying results. Due to the small sample response, the quantitative entrepreneur survey incurred some confidence level qualifications but was considered of sufficient validity to identify the key academic concepts of use to entrepreneurs. The qualitative Delphi study was abandoned due to the non-participation of the venture capital managers. The research concludes that despite some statistical weaknesses in the confidence level, the conceptual entrepreneurial strategy crafting approach as designed is deemed viable for entrepreneurial consideration and further validation via actual entrepreneur field testing is warranted.