Our academic colleagues have become much more interested in entrepreneurism as a viable field of study in the past 15 years. Much of the impetus for this interest is laid at the feet of David Birch of MIT who in 1979 shocked the academic world with his research indicating that the Fortune 500 had stopped creating jobs. According to Birch, the source of new jobs now came from what he called "growth companies" - what are now called entrepreneurial ventures. Current research looks at more precisely defining entrepreneurs and what makes them successful. For example, Michigan State University in a study entitled "The Guiding Principles for Entrepreneurial Success" identifies Entering entrepreneurs (private owners and heads of non-subsidiary manufacturing companies with annual sales under $2.5 million), Emerging entrepreneurs (private owners and heads of non-subsidiary manufacturing companies with growth rates of at least 20% and annual sales of between $2.5 million and $20 million), and Emergent entrepreneurs (private owners and heads of non-subsidiary manufacturing companies with growth rates of at least 20% and annual sales of at least $30 million). Their study is concerned with what factors influence an entrepreneur's success at crossing the barrier into becoming an Emergent entrepreneur. In other words, why do some entrepreneurs stall out and eventually fail and why do some eventually succeed. The other aspect of their study of interest is that it has the beginnings of a handle on how long remains an entrepreneur. The limiting factor of this study is that not all entrepreneurs are in manufacturing - and certainly $2.5 million is a large number for many of us not in the manufacturing business. Different milestones may apply for different types of entrepreneurial ventures, but there do seem to be definitive stages one goes through in an entrepreneurial venture.
Harvard professors Hart, Stevenson and Dial also looked at success in entrepreneurship in Entrepreneurship: A Definition Revisited. They based their work on a five stage model, from Existence to Maturity, focusing primarily on the first three stages: Existence- "the period when the venture is developing products and/or services, finding customers, operating as a simple flat organization," usually lasting from 0-3 years, Survival - "the stage at which the organization is delivering product, becoming more concerned with cash flow and revenue generation while producing marginal returns," usually between years 1-5, and Success - "the stage at which the organization has established a market position and is achieving at- or above-market returns," usually from 3 to 10 years. They, too, are interested in what takes an organization over the wall between these stages - why some fail and some succeed.
Both these studies indicate there is a success point when the company evolves into a more traditional business model. So entrepreneurism can be considered, by these models, as limited either by failure or by the success of the company in that it either goes out of business or becomes a mature company. Many of these companies worry about losing their entrepreneurial spirit at the point of maturity. Many larger corporations with a long period of maturity experience the same fear. From that has evolved intrapreneurship, nurturing of innovation within large corporations, another new field of study and development. The goal is to continue the "spirit of entrepreneurism" into the maturity phase of a business.
