In this article, the authors offer a critique of 26 different models of the business life-cycle. They find that the models lack clarity in the specification of their stages, blur the distinction between the entrepreneur and the business, suffer from inconsistencies and biases, and suggest that movement through their stages is inevitable. The authors maintain that a new model is needed that unmistakably bounds these stages so that a company's position can clearly be assessed in order to facilitate efficient and effective business development. With this in mind, they propose an actionable six-stage constructivist model and discuss its implications for improved practice and research.
AllenD. N.BazanE. J. (1989), ‘Value added contributions of Pennsylvania's business incubators to tenant firms and local economies’, U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration, Washington, DC.
3.
ArgyrisC.PutnamR.SmithD. M. (1990), Action Science, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA.
4.
AvnimelechG.KenneyM.TeubalM. (2004), ‘A life cycle model for the creation of national venture capital industries: The U.S. and Israeli experiences’, unpublished paper.
5.
BarringerB. R.IrelandR. D. (2006), Entrepreneurship: Successfully Launching New Ventures, Pearson Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ.
6.
BellC. G.McNamaraJ. (1991), High-Tech Ventures: The Guide for Entrepreneurial Success, Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, p 251.
7.
BirchD. L. (1981), ‘Corporate evolution: A micro-based analysis’, MIT Program on Neighborhood and Regional Change, Cambridge, MA.
8.
BullockM. (1983), Academic Enterprise, Industrial Innovation and the Development of High Technology Financing in the United States, Brand Brothers & Co, London.
9.
BygraveW.ZacharakisA. (2008), Entrepreneurship, Wiley, New York.
10.
CathomenI. (1995), ‘Application of life cycle theory to inter-organisational system research’, in ClarkR., eds, EDI and Inter-Organisational Systems – Electronic Commerce for Trade Efficiency, Tagungsband, Bled, Slovenia.
11.
ChristensenC. M.RaynorM. E. (2003), The Innovator's Solution, Harvard Business School Publishing, Cambridge, MA, p 27, footnote 18.
12.
ChurchillN. C.LewisV. L. (1983), ‘The five stages of small business growth’, Harvard Business Review, May–June, pp 30–50.
13.
Coopers & Lybrand (1994), ‘HISS Central Team and Darlington Memorial NHS Trust HISS implementation review’, final report, unpublished internal report, Coopers & Lybrand, London.
14.
CunninghamM. T. (1969), ‘The application of product life cycles to corporate strategy: Some research findings’, British Journal of Marketing, Vol 33, pp 32–44.
15.
DancoL. A. (2003), Beyond Survival: A Guide for Business Owners and Their Families, Predictable Futures, Edmonton, Alberta.
16.
DavidssonP. (2005), Researching Entrepreneurship, Springer, New York.
17.
DionneR. (2003), Personal correspondence.
18.
DuryeeD. A. (1994), The Business Owner's Guide to Achieving Financial Success, Irwin Professional Publishing, Burr Ridge, IL.
19.
FlamholzE. G. (1990), Growing Pains, Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco, CA.
GreinerL. E. (1972), ‘Evolution and revolution as organizations grow’, Harvard Business Review, July–August, pp 37–46.
22.
HallbomK. (2003), ‘The universal cycles of change: Patterns in nature translated to human behavior’, NLP Comprehensive of California Website: http://www.nlpca.com/Kris_Hallbom.html.
23.
HanksS. H.WatsonC. J.JansenE.ChandlerG. N. (1993), ‘Tightening the life-cycle construct: A taxonomic study of growth stage configurations in high-technology organisations’, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Vol 18, No 2, pp 5–29.
24.
HansenJ. A. (1998), Surviving Success: Managing the Challenges of Growth, Oasis Press, Grants Pass, OR.
25.
HansenJ. A. (2005), Mastering Business Growth and Change Made Easy, Entrepreneur Press, New York.
26.
HizonM. I. R.BronsonJ. W.DouganW. L. (2004), The Role of Technology as a Competitive Weapon in Each of the Five Phases of Growth, working paper presented at 18th Annual USASBE National Conference, Dallas, TX.
27.
HolmesS.ZimmerI. (1994), ‘The nature of the small firm: Understanding the motivations of growth and non-growth oriented owners’, Australian Journal of Management, Vol 19, No 1, pp 97–120.
28.
KazanjianR. K.DrazinR. (1990), ‘A stage-contingent model of design and growth for technology based ventures’, Journal of Business Venturing, Vol 5, No 3, pp 137–150.
29.
KruegerN. F. (2007), ‘What lies beneath? The experiential essence of entrepreneurial thinking’, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Vol 31, No 1, pp 123–138.
30.
LiH. J. K.TanK. H. (2004), ‘Taking product to market: A selection framework based on life cycle theories’, International Journal of Services and Standards, Vol 1, No 1, pp 4–17.
31.
LichtensteinG. A.LyonsT. S. (2006), ‘Managing the community's pipeline of entrepreneurs and enterprises: A new way of thinking about business assets’, Economic Development Quarterly, Vol 20, No 4, pp 1–10.
32.
LichtensteinG. A.LyonsT. S.KutzhanovaN. (2004), ‘Building entrepreneurial communities: The appropriate role of enterprise development activities’, Journal of the Community Development Society, Vol 35, No 1, pp 5–24.
33.
LongeneckerJ. G.MooreC. W.PettyJ. W.PalichL. E. (2006), Small Business Management: An Entrepreneurial Emphasis, 13 ed, Thomson South-Western, Mason, OH.
34.
MarramE. (2007), ‘Stages of growth’ (Exhibit 7.6), in TimmonsJ. A.SpinelliS., eds, New Venture Creation: Entrepreneurship for the 21st Century, 7 ed, McGraw-Hill Irwin, Boston, MA.
35.
McMahonR. G. P. (1998), Stage Models of SME Growth Reconsidered, School of Commerce Research Paper Series: 98–5, The Flinders University of South Australia, Adelaide.
36.
MooreG. A. (1998), Inside the Tornado, Capstone Publishing, Camberley.
37.
MooreG. A. (2005), Dealing with Darwin, Penguin Group, New York.
38.
O'FarrellP. N.HitchensD. M. W. N. (1988), ‘Alternative theories of small-firm growth: A critical review’, Environment and Planning A, Vol 20, No 2, pp 1365–1383.
39.
ReynoldsP. D.WhiteS. B. (1997), The Entrepreneurial Process: Economic Growth, Men, Women and Minorities, Quorum Books, London.
40.
RobertsE. B. (1991), Entrepreneurs in High Technology, Oxford University Press, New York.
41.
SarasvathyS. D. (2008), Effectuation: Elements of Entrepreneurial Expertise, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham.
42.
ShererA.McDonaldD. W. (1988), ‘A model for the development of small high-technology businesses based on case studies from an incubator’, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Vol 5, No 4, pp 282–295.
43.
TimmonsJ. A.SpinelliS. (2007), New Venture Creation: Entrepreneurship for the 21st Century, 7 ed, McGraw-Hill Irwin, Boston, MA.
44.
UrriolagoitiaL.PlanellasM. (2007), ‘Sponsorship relationships as strategic alliances: A life cycle model approach’, Business Horizons, Vol 50, No 2, pp 157–166.
45.
Van de VenA. H.VenkataramanS.PolleyD.GarudR. (1989), ‘Processes of new business creation in different organizational settings’, in Van de VenA. H.AngleH.PooleM. S., eds, Research on the Management of Innovation, Harper & Row, New York, pp 212–297.
46.
WangK. C. (2002), ‘The five element theory in business research’, Proceedings of the 46th Annual Conference of ISSS, August, International Society for the Systems Sciences, Shanghai, PR China.
