"Profiles in Small Business" considers how small firms achieve competitive advantages in the marketplace. Using rich primary source data, the book presents seventeen detailed profiles on diverse small businesses within a three year time frame. Each profile shows how an entrepreneur has tried to achieve a competitive advantage in the marketplace by fighting against the forces of extended rivalry: market competitors, buyers, suppliers, substitutes and potential entrants. The book also discusses reasons for cash flow problems and difficulties associated with excessive "gearing."
The book offers a rigorous, non-technical treatment with tables and schemes illustrating the text. The authors bring insights from managerial economics, industrial organization and small firm consulting. They apply a common framework in all the examples and keep their analysis well grounded in the reality of small business existence. The book is a companion volume to "Small Business Enterprise," also published by Routledge.
