Planning for the market: business planning before marketing and the continuation of organizing efforts

Drawing on goal setting theory, we argue that writing business plans before undertaking marketing activities should enhance the continuation of venture-organizing efforts. We examine 223 new venture-organizing efforts initiated in the first 9 months of 1998 by a random sample of Swedish entrepreneurs and show that those organizing efforts in which entrepreneurs completed business plans before talking to customers and beginning marketing or promotion had a lower hazard of termination than other organizing efforts. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.