The competitive advantage for the early stage entrepreneurs, the case of Lebanon

Maroun JNEID1, Antoine TANNOUS2 1Doctoral school Cognition-Language-Interaction, Université Paris 8, Saint Denis – France

Faculty of engineering, Antonine University, Beirut - Lebanon 2Marketing Department, faculty of Business - Lebanese University, Tripoli - Lebanon

mjneid@etud.univ-paris8.fr

antoine_tannous@yahoo.fr

Keywords: Competitive advantage, Value Chain, Entrepreneurs skills, Information system, Human

resources, marketing and financial plan.

Abstract

The startup usually has less capital, fewer scientists and engineers, less legitimacy or brand presence, fewer strategic alliances, evolving organizational structures and incomplete or even non-existent business processes. At a more abstract level, young firms have liabilities of newness and smallness, so they fail at higher rates than do their larger and older competitors. On the other hand, entrepreneurship is a driving force bringing creativity to the business and establishing a community of high-growth economy. In fact, an embracing of entrepreneurial creativity can also bring a business of wider growth, more competitive advantage, enhanced productivity, numerous jobs and wealth creation and ultimately a better quality of life for all. Increasingly, firms are attempting to design and implement entrepreneurial strategies in order to strengthen their competitive advantage and to survive the early stage. Therefore, our paper will present how Lebanese entrepreneurs are perceiving the below indicators on the reinforcement of the competitive advantage: • External/Internal Information evaluation process. • Human resource management practices for SMEs. • The process that begins with a new idea and concludes with market introduction in order to mark the point of difference in competition. • The value chain analysis and its importance in the quest to achieve sustainable competitive advantage for an entrepreneurship; as time elapses, the value chain may lose its ability to generate value for the customer or due that to competition, demand, fluctuations and discovery of weak links. • Entrepreneurship skills, marketing capability and sustained competitive advantage; hopefully to propose some new points of view in managing enterprises. Interviewed entrepreneurs have superficial and general information about the basic knowledge that allow them to take the right decisions. According to our exploratory research, we found that this basic knowledge is considered as a key factor of success to their early stage business. Thereby, Lebanese entrepreneurs should undertake training and have a follow up to all the basic knowledge to help them surpass the in flexibility related to the early stage. Entrepreneurs have weaknesses or even ignore the importance of scientific studies like SWOT analysis, interviews, qualitative and quantitative studies, offers and management to the consumers’ needs, and also how to look for competitive advantages, though these studies are essential before the formation of their ideas. Our paper is based on a qualitative approach and will be of use first for young entrepreneurs in order to leverage their awareness about the importance of the competitive advantage and to highlight the type of training to get in order to survive the early stage of their entrepreneurial process and second for the government to give a lucid vision about possible regulations to support the entrepreneurs in their early stage

Introduction and Research Design Knowledge is the key factor of an entrepreneurial success in its early stage. Our paper shows the level of basic knowledge of Lebanese entrepreneurs in their early stages. As we know, small businesses are the job creators for a country as well as the key driver of the economy.

That's why we want to help the Lebanese entrepreneurs to succeed in their starting phase in a

competitive market, and that, by detecting their level of knowledge in order to offer them an adapted

training to their needs. Therefore, after a primary research, we identified the importance of knowledge’s

level an entrepreneur should hold in the following areas: The importance of competitive advantage, the

value chain, the innovation, the information system, human resources, the awareness and effectiveness

of the marketing plan of the entrepreneur, the level of skills and experiences of this latter as well as his

acquaintance with the field of financial ratios.

To evaluate the entrepreneurs’ level of knowledge in their early stages, we found it necessary to help

entrepreneurs express themselves deeply and in details through qualitative methods (semi-structured

individual interview).

This article is divided into two sections; in the first one, a literature review about the successful criteria of

an entrepreneur was exposed. In the second section, a summary of the results obtained after our

qualitative study of (24 Lebanese entrepreneurs) was uncovered.

Section 1: Literature Review & Research Question. 1. Literature Review. Based on many research articles we noticed that the main factors contributing on the SME’s entrepreneur success in the early stage are exposed as follow: 1.1. The competitive advantage factor Small companies play an essential in creating job and improving economy of a nation, but unfortunately, numerous entrepreneurship ideas fail to enter their early stage because of the lack of entrepreneurs’ knowledge and training. A study (Covin & Miles 1999) shows a relation between entrepreneurial creativity and competitive advantage and also entrepreneurial commitment and competitive advantage. Corporate entrepreneurship has long been recognized as a potentially viable means for promoting and sustaining corporate competitiveness. According to Schollhammer (1982), Miller (1983), Khandwalla (1987), Guth and Ginsberg (1990), Naman and Slevin (1993), and Lumpkin and Dess (1996), a good corporate entrepreneurship can lead to increase the competitive positioning of a company and consequently improving its market share and opportunities. And we note that, the label entrepreneurial should not be applied to firms that are not innovative. Because according to Stevenson and Gumpert (1985), innovation is the "heart of entrepreneur-ship." Likewise, Stopford and Baden-Fuller (1994 p. 522) observed that "most authors accept that all types of entrepreneurship are based on innovations”. Many variables lead to competitive advantages as indicated later in our article such as personal creativity, business creativity, product development, product differentiation, entrepreneurial commitment and human resources management. Asselineau & Cromarias (2011) add the proximity to these variables. For them, a small business company can get advantages to grow from geographical proximity to private companies and public institutions. Because of this proximity, SME can get competitive advantage in building a one to one relation with them; this is not the case of international companies supplying products into the national market.

1.2. The value chain analysis factor According to Krajewski and Ritzman (2007), processes are a firm's basic activities that take inputs, modify them and add value to them in order to create outputs aimed at the firm's end customer. It is important to utilize a process view of the firms since a firm's competitive success is positively correlated with the effectiveness of its internal processes. Thus a supply chain can be illustrated as a flow of inputs (at different degrees) in a pipeline that conveys flows of resources, e.g. inputs such as raw materials, services, financial resources, information and logistics, that are processed and converted to outputs in an efficient manner.

If each activity in the value chain is well worked on by the entrepreneur, it will provide a (value) competitive advantage for the company which is manifested by an added value different from the competition to the final consumer. On the other hand, value equal cost, equal beneficial price will be well perceived by the customer. Adoram (2011) stipulate that competencies based on information, skills and know-how accumulated at the firm can strengthen the firm’s core competencies. Such competencies are difficult to imitate and substitute and thus are uniquely characterized and can be regarded as distinct sources of sustained competitive advantage. In essence, core competencies are a firm’s unique resources based on collective learning and coordination of the organization with regard to the workforce skills and the ability to respond quickly to short-term changes in demand or supply, facilities, market know-how and technology. Core processes such as inward logistics, production (just in time), outbound logistics, marketing efforts and sales services are essential to create a competitive advantage, dependent on industry uniqueness, in order to deliver value to external consumers.

1.3. The innovation factor According to Abdul Halim & Che Mat (2010), entrepreneurial creativity can also bring a more growth to business, competitive advantage, productivity improvement, job and wealth creation, and ultimately a better quality of life for all. In their exploratory study, Abdul Halim & Che Mat (2010) reveals that the variables in entrepreneurial creativity are related with the competitive advantage. These variables are indicating in the table just below.

Table 1: List of variables, indicators and their citations

Due to the rapid pace and unpredictability of technology change, companies need continuous and rapid modification of their product features and ways in to conduct business. Hax (1989) argues that global

strategies are dependent in large part on accelerating the speed at which innovations are translated into profitable commercial ventures. Several common themes emerge repeatedly across studies to suggest that the link between innovation activities and competitive advantage rests primarily on four factors. One, innovations that are hard to imitate are more likely to lead to sustainable competitive advantage (Porter 1985). Two innovations that accurately reflect market realities are more likely to lead to sustainable competitive advantage (Deming 1983; Porter 1985). Three, innovations that enable a firm to exploit the timing characteristics of the relevant industry are more likely to lead to sustainable competitive advantage (Betz 1987; Kanter 1983). Fourth, innovations that rely on capabilities and technologies that are readily accessible to the firm are more likely to lead to sustainable competitive advantage (Ansoff 1988; Miller 1990). 1.4. The Information System factor One area where management and IS researchers can work together is in applying dynamic capabilities theory (Teece et al. 1997). This theory affords the IT field an opportunity to frame its research questions based on situational and environmental contexts within which such technologies can enable a firm to gain and sustain a competitive advantage. It suggests that dynamic capabilities are essentially change-oriented capabilities that help firms redeploy and reconfigure their resource base to meet evolving customer demands and competitor strategies. According to Zahra and George (2002) Entrepreneurship defines opportunities, where IT makes these opportunities feasible and viable. Strategy enables firms to differentiate themselves from their rivals to generate wealth. It is this ongoing interplay between entrepreneurship, IT and competitive strategy that makes the firm's capabilities dynamic, even as markets and competitors change. This interplay between entrepreneurship, IT and competitive strategy provides some insights into how value may be created in net-enabled organizations. 1.5. The Human Resources and Management factor Human resources are an important element to the success of the entrepreneur. Entrepreneurial activities are challenging and as such can contribute to a job’s motivation potential (Hackman & Oldham 1975) or can place excessive demands on a firm’s human resources for its success. Schuler and Jackson (1987) identify relation between efficiency of strategy implementation and human resources practices in order to gain competitive advantage by cost focus or differentiation. Human resources practices could include good job description, performance appraisal, and motivation. They also explain the importance of managing resistance to change in modifying human resources practices to match it the company strategy. Based on these facts, Schuler and Jackson (1987) identify two types of companies: ‘’Businesses pursuing an entrepreneurial strategy to gain competitive advantage would be more likely to have HRM practices that give employees more participation in personnel decisions; offer more employment security; use job performance appraisal and compensation practices that facilitate cooperation across groups; reward employees with more deferred compensation and stock ownership; and provide more broad-based training and development, compared to businesses pursuing an entrepreneurial strategy to gain competitive advantage. Results indicate that in entrepreneurial firms, the jobs held by hourly employees are less likely to allow those employees to acquire skills useful for other positions in the firm, and top-management is more likely to receive training that focuses on a short-rather than long-term needs. Otherwise, the impact of an entrepreneurial strategy on HRM practices would be greatest for employees in top management and least for employees below the level of top management’’. 1.6. The marketing capability factor Brownlie (1998) identifies the shortcomings of stepwise formal marketing planning and strategy since such processes will always be carried out under conditions of imperfect knowledge about the future. Piercy (1986) argues that despite widespread usage of rational methods, there is lack of evidence that such approaches produce better results than creative, judgmental approaches. If there are problems with larger firm marketing, then the situation is compounded when examining the smaller form with less resources at its disposal, where higher levels of uncertainty are expected. Marketing decision tools such as SWOT analysis and portfolio analysis still have their role to play, but such tools should be utilized in conjunction with a more creative approach in doing marketing. The

smaller firm is more flexible, closer to customers and more capable of adaptation and implementing creative change through exploitation of core competencies, than traditional marketing frameworks recognize (Hill 2001). Gilmore et al (2001) believe that the SME cannot follow formal marketing conventions because of the limited resources at its disposal, and because of the different way in which the SME manager thinks. The process is haphazard, chaotic and non-linear. Networking theory is an alternative to appropriate explanation of SME marketing formulating plans and strategies. As SME grows in experience the nature of managerial judgment changes from acting mainly on intuition to a more considered, planned and yet still incomplete view of future strategy. The figure below presents the Biographical Research and Smaller Firm Marketing Theory Generation according to Fillis Ian (2003).

Figure 1. Biographical Research and Smaller Firm Marketing Theory Generation. (Fillis Ian, 2003)

1.7. The entrepreneur skills factor The benefits of adopting a successful marketing plan include the ability to focus on the owner or the manager skills, mood, feeling, thought processes and motivations in decision making and in providing additional insight into creativity. If an entrepreneur collects more primary and secondary data, this will allow him to take wise decisions and to be unconventional and creating demand rather than following

customer wishes. This is sometimes more effective for the entrepreneurial smaller firm in order to establish added value and competitive advantage in the marketplace. On the other hand, according to John Freeman, Jerome S. Engel (2007) the entrepreneur’s success often leads to earlier rather than later replacement by more experienced top managers. This results from the rapid increase in problem complexity attending structural and business process complexity. Managerial work requires more sophisticated skills, and these latter are developed over time. An entrepreneur capable of managing a company when it has twenty employees may be incapable of managing that company when it has two thousand employees. The faster that company grows from twenty to two thousand, the more likely is such succession of leadership. Finally, these processes of growth include a transition in the company itself. When such companies succeed, they transform themselves into corporations. The business systems, organizational structures, and highly trained managers who run them produce an organization built for efficiency. Rapid scaling of the enterprise and rising competition demand such efficiency. However, this robs the young company of the very properties that allowed it to innovate rapidly and seize opportunities engendered by innovation.

1.8. The financial plan factor Managers should understand the meaning of financial data and follow the regulations which affect financial statement of the company. Cash is the most important, yet least productive, asset that a small business owns. Businesses must have enough cash to meet their obligations or run the risk of declaring bankruptcy. It is entirely possible for a business to earn a profit and still go out of business by running out of cash. Small and growing companies are like “sponges,” soaking up every available dollar to fund growth and sales. The first step in managing cash more effectively is to understand the company’s cash flow cycle. There are several ways entrepreneurs can improve their cash flow. This includes being more aggressive with collectables, increasing prices, offering customers early discounts, take advantage of vendors’ payment terms, and charging purchases to credit cards. Cash and profits are not the same. Profit is the net increase over a period of time in capital cycled through the business, indicating how effectively the firm is being managed. Cash is the money that flows through the business in a continuous cycle. A business cannot spend profits only the cash it possesses. Entrepreneurs must learn how to manage cash flow to insure long-term success for the venture.

2. Research Question Based on our result in the literature review, our main question of research was: Do Lebanese entrepreneurs in their early stage follow the key factors of success to their new business idea? According to our literature review these are the research questions that will contribute to the findings:

⇒ Are they on familiar terms with competitive advantage, value chain, and information system? If so, which level?

⇒ How much are they acquainted with human resources management, innovation, marketing plan, marketing and management analysis?

⇒ How well do they know about organization and financial plan?

Section 2: Methodology and Empirical results. 1. Methodology

For this study, a face to face qualitative interview method was used; as a consultant in “Mauris Fadel

Prize” for young entrepreneurs in the north of Lebanon, I have select 24 qualified entrepreneurs over 60

participants. Some of these entrepreneurs are fresh graduates while the others have been graduated six

years ago; nonetheless, this entrepreneur’s experience was their first. The study had eight objectives to

cover competitive advantage, value chain, innovation, information system, human resources and

management, marketing capability, entrepreneur skills and financial plan factors for a successful

entrepreneurship.

We considered the results of this study as an exploratory research which allows us to have solid base for

further studies.

2. Empirical Results

The questionnaire and the answers below recapitulate the evaluation of the related topics as described by

the interrogated entrepreneurs. The table below presents the questions followed by the Answers and

Analysis (A.A.):

Table1: Questionnaire recapitulation

Q 1. Define what a business competitive advantage is: A.A.: The majority of those interviewed possessed fine knowledge about the meaning of competitive advantage. It meant to them as follows: “It is what makes an idea/product/service different and unique in the market where you are operating. In order to overcome the competition. It also means cost reduction, more profit, quality improvement, and the length of experience. It creates also new job opportunities and serves better the environment.”

Q 2. Describe the competitive advantage of your business idea: A.A.: 16 entrepreneurs out of 24 knew the competitive advantage linked directly to their idea, but in a simplistic way. They did not indicate other aspects that can lead and be a combination to a competitive advantage, such as the skills of the company, the computer intelligence system etc. their claims were not based on interviews with professionals or qualitative studies with customers. Most entrepreneurs relied on their intuitions to build a competitive advantage.

Q 3. Define what a business value chain is: Q 4. Describe the importance of value chain for your business idea: A.A.: 6 entrepreneurs out of 24 distinguished the meaning and the importance of their value chain. 7 out of 24 know what does mean a value chain meant, but they were not able to identify its competitive advantage. Finally, 10 out of 24 ignored its significance and its importance.

Q 5. Describe what an information system is: Q 6. Describe the information systems needed for your business idea: A.A.: Only 7 out of 24 described the information system. 17 out of 24 recognized its importance but were not able to precise its need. 3 out of 24 entrepreneurs ignored the meaning and the usefulness of the information system to their companies’ success.

Q 7. Define what the role of Human resources management in the company is: Q 8. Describe the role of human resource management in the success of your idea: A.A.: 5 entrepreneurs out of 24 defined the role of human resources management. 12 didn’t have a clear idea about the role of human resources: They gave general descriptions. The other 5 knew nothing about the matter, while 17 entrepreneurs were unable to label their related needs to their ideas; They were unable to determine how human resources can impact their effectiveness in the implementation of their idea.

Q 9. Define what the meaning and importance of innovation in business success are: Q 10. Describe the innovation of your idea, and how this latter will enable the success of your business

idea: A.A.: 11 entrepreneurs recognized the meaning and importance of innovation in business success whereas 11 others ignored it. 13 entrepreneurs knew the impact of innovation on their ideas, but 11 others didn’t give satisfied answers; They didn’t have creativity in their ideas.

Q 11. Illustrate your marketing plan and describe the reasons behind your choice of your marketing actions:

A.A.: The majority of entrepreneurs had a marketing plan but unfortunately most of these plans were not based on objectives, strategy, segmentation and positioning of their companies. They missed these steps in their plan. They confused between a marketing mix plan and a marketing plan.

Q 12. Specify what a qualitative research is and how it is done: Q 13. Specify what a quantitative study is and how it is done: A.A.: A big number of entrepreneurs needed training in this field for not being properly aware or even instructed about the qualitative or quantitative research

Q 14. List the strengths and the weaknesses of your business idea Q 15. Include threats and opportunities of your business idea A.A.: Nearly all confounded among strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

Q 16. Describe your business goals A.A.: The majority of entrepreneurs described their business goals, and only 5 of them gave a deadline to achieve them.

Q 17. Describe your business strategy A.A.: Half of the entrepreneurs interviewed describe their business strategies while the other half mixed up between goal and strategy for not being able to perceive the meaning of business strategy. Still two entrepreneurs related their strategies implementations to a time table.

Q 18. Write down your different target segments A.A.: A good number of entrepreneurs indicated their target segments without making hierarchies of their importance.

Q 19. Define your positioning A.A.: Entrepreneurs ignored the meaning of positioning. Only few of them stipulated an adequate positioning according to their ideas, strategies and market segmentation.

Q 20. Describe your marketing mix A.A.: A great number of entrepreneurs indicated a marketing mix. They mentioned products and services characteristics, prices, distributions channels and promotions while few of them made an accurate detailed description. Others were not able to give us precise information.

Q 21. Describe the importance of your internal organization and management for the success of your business:

A.A.: Some of them gave us accurate description about their management and organization adapted to their consumers’ needs while others described a classic organization, but few had no clear answers. They gave general answers about organization and management knowledge. Their answers were not related to their specific cases. Also they were not able to give more precision which means they had lack of information and about this field

Q 22. Describe how your financial plan can help you bring your business idea to completion: A.A.: Few entrepreneurs told us in details about financial ratios and their impacts on the financial situation of the company. The majorities of entrepreneurs gave general description which lead to the conclusion that they grasped little in this field.

Q 23. Describe the liquidity problem that your company might face: A.A.: As the answer of the precedent question, few entrepreneurs were aware of the lack of liquidity their companies could face. They’ve explained the needs of liquidity caused by the difference between the purchasing dates of products and the selling dates. Based on that they estimated the loan they have to take from the bank to avoid problem payment to suppliers, employees and others. But the majorities of entrepreneurs thought that the liquidity problem was related only to the customers’ payments dates.

3. Discussion of Results By interpreting the findings from this qualitative study and by relating them to the key success factors of

SME entrepreneurs, we can conclude the following about the Lebanese SMEs entrepreneurs:

• Regarding the competitive advantage factor, Entrepreneurs knew how important it is to the success of their business but the majority failed to combine many elements to lead to competitive advantages such as product and services differentiation combined with core competencies. On the other hand, their answers were not based on scientific studies like, Delphi method, observation, qualitative and quantitative studies; they have weak awareness on how to use these studies.

• Value Chain factor: Entrepreneurs ignored how to build a competitive advantage in every part of the value chain.

• Information System factor: Entrepreneurs had a vague and indefinite idea about its importance and its impact on company efficiency.

• Human Resources and Management factor: Entrepreneurs were not able to determine how its impact is essential to the implementation of their idea. They were not able to build an organisation and a management related to their consumers’ specific needs and competitive advantage.

• Innovation factor, Entrepreneurs had a lack of creativity in their ideas.

• Marketing mix factor, Entrepreneurs operational plan was not related to the strategic plan; plus they confounded between the element of a swot analysis and how to use it. They mixed up among goals,

objectives and strategies. They didn’t give a finishing deadline. They had ignorance of the positioning and its effect on sales.

• Financial plan factor, Entrepreneurs had minor knowledge regarding the financial ratios and plan. The results of this study highlighted the need to advise the Lebanese entrepreneurs at early stages to

undertake trainings and have follow up in the areas studied in our research. Otherwise, they will end up

with failing even if their business idea is innovative. These trainings and follow-ups can be proposed and

financed by the state or other third parties, like associations and municipalities.

4. CONTRIBUTIONS AND DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

4.1 Theoretical Contributions and Future Directions for Research This study was intended to provide a clearer understanding of the level of knowledge SME entrepreneurs about competitive advantage, value chain, information system, human resources management, innovation, marketing plan, marketing and management analysis as well as organization and financial plan in order to succeed in their early stages in a third world context. 4.2 Managerial Contributions This study can be considered as decision support tool to help the deciders in the state or particularly the entrepreneurs of the third world SME to be aware of their lack of knowledge and to know which field of training they have to perform in order to succeed in a competitive market and in a tough economy as the Lebanese one. 5. CONCLUSION The purpose of this study is to list the field in which SME entrepreneurs at their early stages have to complete before entering the market. Meanwhile it is an exploratory study to identify exactly the lack based on a quantitative assessment.

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