Strategy formulation by internet entrepreneurs

[Truncated abstract] Poor strategy development by Internet entrepreneurs has been linked to the failure of Internet firms. Unfortunately, little is known about successful Internet entrepreneurs developing their strategies in the long run. The purpose of this research is to explore how successful Internet entrepreneurs develop strategy for firms after start up. Five sets of processes adapted from Mintzberg's ten schools of thought were used to explore the extent that Internet entrepreneurs formulate their strategy through rational vs. intuitive processes, individual vs. social processes, an emergent learning process, reactive vs. proactive processes and finally, transformational processes. Two studies were conducted for this purpose. In Study 1, cluster analysis was carried out to classify 111 Internet firms with data from the Hoovers.com database using 12 organizational variables including firm size, firm age, and growth choice. In Study 2, interpretative case study analysis was performed for fifteen Internet entrepreneurs sampled from the three groups of firms generated from cluster analysis in Study 1. The three groups were Private, Public and Established Internet entrepreneurs.