Entrepreneurial strategy and the presence of small firms

A model is presented hypothesizing that the level of small-firm presence in any given industry emanates from the exogenous stock of entrepreneurial talent, a stochastic element of managerial and entrepreneurial talent, entry deterrence, and the entrepreneurial strategy deployed by small firms. Using data newly released by the U.S. Small Business Administration, the hypothesis is tested for a sample of 247 four-digit standard industrial classification industries, spanning the entire spectrum of firm sizes. We find that, consistently for all the measures of small-firm size and for all of the time periods used, the existence of entry deterrence and reliance upon innovative strategy explains a significant proportion of the variation in the presence of small firms.