Exploring the black box of early-stage entrepreneurial planning: Hermeneutical insights from case research

Abstract

Researchers are engaged in a major debate on the value of business planning in new venture creation. Findings of prior empirical research have been fragmented and contradictory. This does not surprise given that despite the lack of an understanding of the nature of planning in the entrepreneurial context, most of these studies employed survey methodology to test the impact of planning on performance. This thesis seeks to deepen our understanding of entrepreneurial planning by drawing on qualitative case research. Theories from narrow streams of literature were combined to develop a holistic theoretical framework that was used to collect and analyse data from four cases. Results show that in contrast to the methods employed in previous studies, the presence of a business plan is a poor proxy for measuring the extent to which the entrepreneurs in the four cases studied plan. Rather, planning in these cases occurs on various levels with different types of formal and informal outcomes, depending on a range of antecedents such as the industry in which the new venture is operating. The understanding and theoretical framework developed in this thesis can be used to create better measures in quantitative studies and ultimately contribute to the question of whether and how entrepreneurs should plan.