Contingency Approaches to Structuring Entrepreneurial New Ventures in Turbulent Environments

Abstract

New ventures are considered to be vulnerable especially during their infancy with many failing to develop into thriving, prosperous businesses. A major factor that determines survival and success is the environment in which they operate. Static/placid environments exist at one end of a continuum where there is no change and turbulent environments exist at the other end where all factors are continually changing. Given the recorded failure rate of start-ups, this paper proposes a contingency model for how new ventures can be structured in turbulent environments. Ultimately, we suggest that these firms will perform better if they have organic structures.