How to plan as a small scale business owner: Psychological process characteristics of action strategies and success

A theoretical analysis of individual-level planning and action strategies used by small business owners/managers distinguishes five different strategic approaches: Complete (top-down) Planning, Critical Point, Opportunistic, Reactive, and Routine/Habit. Research on 80 owners of small start-up firms in the Netherlands showed that, as hypothesized, a Reactive Strategy was negatively related to firm success, while a Critical Point Strategy was positively related. The combination of Critical Point and Opportunistic strategies appeared most successful and the combination of Opportunistic and Reactive was found to be least successful.