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Entrepreneurial Factors for the Fitness Industry
Abstract
The following work examines the different aspects of opening an exercise-based business and identifies factors of the competitive environment that are conducive to opening a recreational and athletic strength training facility. Questions were answered regarding what type of exercise-based business could feasibly compete against the other exercise-based businesses and related non-profit organizations and what the existing exercise-based businesses and related non-profit organizations located within a 30-mile radius of southwest Dearborn, Michigan, were doing to survive in the current competitive economy. Information was gathered from100 fitness facility websites and 30 survey interviews from the managers and owners of the exercise-based businesses within a 30-mile radius of southwest Dearborn, Michigan. The results demonstrated a need for a fitness center focused on sports training. Also, the current U.S. recession may be reason to start a business in the near future; however, future research is needed.
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Objective. The aim of this study was to create an inventory of fitness facilities in South Africa, their location, equipment and services offered, and the demographics, education and training of the staff working in these facilities. Design. A total of 750 facilities were identified, and descriptive data were gathered from 442 facilities (59%) with the use of a questionnaire administered telephonically and via the website of the Sports Science Institute of South Africa. Setting. The study was initiated by the Sports Science Institute, and the results were presented at the 4th Annual Discovery Vitality Fitness Convention on 4 May 2006. Results. Results show that the industry comprises mainly independent facilities (68%). All types of facilities were found to be located mostly within urban areas, and reported providing services to just less than 2% of the South African population. Facilities offer a wide range of equipment and services to their members. Of the fitness-related staff at facilities, the majority were reported to be young (18 - 25 years, 55% of male, and 49% of female staff), and in terms of racial proportions most staff were white (males 40% of total staff and females 33% of total staff).Less than a quarter of fitness-related staff hold university qualifications, and just over 80% of instructors hold qualifications aligned with the National Qualifications Framework. The importance of education and training of staff was emphasised by respondents. Conclusions. This report highlights the widespread value of assessing the fitness industry, particularly within the context of the rise of chronic diseases in South Africa and government initiatives to promote healthy lifestyles. South African Journal of Sports Medicine Vol. 18 (3) 2006: pp. 93-104
Research concerning the impact of marketing in the development of
small enterprise research is extremely limited. Explores the role of
marketing in the development of small enterprise research through the
examination of 42 marketing-related studies of small firm settings.
Defines small enterprise research (SER) as all main articles published
during the 1986-1992 period in the Journal of Small Business
Management; International Small Business Journal; Entrepreneurship:
Theory and Practice; Journal of Business Venturing; Small Business
Economics; and Asia Pacific International Management Forum.
The three major research thrusts that are identified from this
literature are: marketing as a culture; marketing as a strategy; and
marketing as tactics. Discusses key issues and findings associated with
each thrust.
The Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics attempts to provide systematic, reliable data about the fundamental nature of the business start-up or entrepreneurial process. 830 nascent entrepreneurs were identified from a sample of 64,622 U.S. households, and their business startup activities were followed over a two-year period. This executive summary reports the first stage of the initial sample of 64,622 households and the screening interviews. Four questions were investigated: (1) who is starting businesses, (2) how they start them, (3) which efforts result in new firms, and (4) why some startups become successful high-growth businesses. Five successful entrepreneurs are also profiled. Among the findings: entrepreneurship is a widespread activity; about half of all new ventures are started by teams; men are twice as likely as women to start new businesses; except for people older than 65, entrepreneurship involves adults of all ages; blacks are about 50 percent more likely than whites to start businesses; education and household income significantly predict entrepreneurship; place affects entrepreneurial activity; and the impact of urban context varies for whites, blacks, and Hispanics.
The factors leading nascent entrepreneurs to expend effort writing business plans are examined and the effect such planning has on new organizations is considered. This is part of a larger consideration within institutional theory about whether or not conformity leads to profitability or survival. There were 396 nascent Swedish entrepreneurs investigated over a four consecutive six-month periods. Both the production of the plan and the outcomes were examined. New organizations are subject to institutional pressure to produce written business plans - they are expected to plan, they imitate other successful organizations, or they are told to plan. The findings show that institutional variables (such as coercion and imitation) predict the likelihood for new organizations to write business plans. The study's results are more in line with institutional predictions and are contrary to rationalist predictions of planning-performance. Conclusions indicate that writing a business plan has no significant effect on the survival or profitability of the new organization. (TNM)
The process by which firm founders create new organizations is of considerable interest to evolutionary theorists and entrepreneurship researchers. This article tracks the life histories of 223 Swedish new ventures started between January and September 1998 by a random sample of firm founders. We explore the effect of legitimating activities on the hazard of disbanding and the transition to other firm organizing activities during their first 30 months of life. We find that undertaking activities to generate legitimacy reduces the hazard of venture disbanding and facilitates the transition to other organizing activities.
Although personal determinants of exercise behavior have been studied extensively, few investigators have examined the influence of the physical environment on exercise habits. A random sample of 2,053 residents of San Diego, CA, were surveyed regarding exercise habits and other variables. A total of 385 exercise facilities in San Diego were classified into categories of either free or pay. After the addresses of respondents and facilities were located on a grid-map and coded, the density of exercise facilities around each respondent's home address was computed. Subjects who reported engaging in three or more exercise sessions per week reported a statistically greater density of pay facilities near their homes than did those who reported no exercise sessions, after controlling for age, education, and income. The finding suggests an association between proximity of exercise facilities and frequency of exercise.
Environmental determinants of health are receiving growing attention in the literature, although there is little empirical research in this area. The Study on Environmental and Individual Determinants of Physical Activity (known as the SEID project) was a social ecological project that examined the relative influence of individual, social environmental and physical environmental determinants of recreational physical activity. It involved a community survey of 1803 healthy workers and home-makers aged 18-59 years living in a 408 km2 area of metropolitan Perth, Western Australia. Physical environmental determinants were mainly conceptualised as spatial access to popular recreational facilities. Overall, 59% of respondents exercised as recommended. Recreational facilities located near home were used by more respondents than facilities located elsewhere. The most frequently used facilities were informal: the streets (45.6%); public open space (28.8%) and the beach (22.7%). The physical environment's directs the influence on exercising as recommended was found to be secondary to individual and social environmental determinants. Nevertheless, accessible facilities determined whether or not they were used and in this way, support and enhance the achievement of recommended levels of physical activity behaviour by providing opportunities. The results suggest that access to a supportive physical environment is necessary, but may be insufficient to increase recommended levels of physical activity in the community. Complementary strategies are required that aim to influence individual and social environmental factors. Given the popularity of walking in the community, it is recommended that greater emphasis be placed on creating streetscapes that enhance walking for recreation and transport.
New firms are believed to have high closure rates and these closures are believed to be failures, but two U.S. Census Bureau data sources illustrate that these assumptions may not be justified. The Business Information Tracking Series (BITS) showed that about half of new employer firms survive beyond four years and the Characteristics of Business Owners (CBO) showed that about a third of closed businesses were successful at closure. The CBO also made it possible to compare results of models of business survival and business success, but because of non-response bias logit models were used. Similar to previous studies, firms having more resources--that were larger, with better financing and having employees--were found to have better chances of survival. Factors that were characteristic of closure--such as having no start-up capital and having a relatively young owner--were also common in businesses considered successful at closure. Hence, few defining factors can be isolated leading to true failures. The significant proportion of businesses that closed while successful calls into question the use of "business closure" as a meaningful measure of business outcome. It appears that many owners may have executed a planned exit strategy, closed a business without excess debt, sold a viable business, or retired from the work force. It is also worth noting that such inborn factors as race and gender played negligible roles in determining survivability and success at closure. Copyright 2003 by Kluwer Academic Publishers
This research analyzed new venture start-up activities undertaken by 71 nascent entrepreneurs. Nascent entrepreneurs are individuals who were identified as taking steps to found a new business but who had not yet succeeded in making the transition to new business ownership. Longitudinal data for the study comes from a secondary data analysis of two representative samples, one of 683 adult residents in Wisconsin (Reynolds and White 1993) and the other of 1016 adult residents of the United States (Curtin 1982). These surveys were conducted between 1992 and 1993, and the nascent entrepreneurs were reinterviewed six to 18 months after their initial interview.
A review of research from organizational behavior supported the guidelines by corporate planners: that is, use an explicit approach for setting objectives, generating strategies, evaluating strategies, monitoring results, and obtaining commitment. To determine whether these findings could be applied to strategic decision making in organizations, a review was made of all published field research on the evaluation of formal planning. Formal planning was superior in 10 of the 15 comparisons drawn from 12 studies, while informal planning was superior in only two comparisons. Although this research did not provide sufficient information on the use of various aspects of the planning process, mild support was provided for having participation by stakeholders. Formal planning tended to be more useful where large changes were involved, but, beyond that, little information was available to suggest when formal planning is most valuable. Future research should assess the formal planning process, t...
Entrepreneurs’ timeframes for the birth and early development of new ventures offers a new lens for understanding the psychology and social construction of new organizations. This paper reviews the temporal aspects of new venture intentions. A model that features temporal brackets is presented.
The Author’s theme of company competitiveness and the role played by information and communications technologies (ICT) in its maximization is continued with a review of corporate uses of Internet and intranet technology. Internet technology is used for accessing all the information on the Web, the invisible Web, electronic mail (email), instant messaging, newsgroups, chat rooms, online message boards, communities of practice, virtual communities, intranets, extranets, portals, vortals, industrynets and auctions. The Internet has had a profound effect on organizations and business activity by overcoming geographic boundaries and making information more easily available and in larger quantities to a wider potential customer base. The importance of acknowledging the inability of the Internet alone to create a competitive advantage is stressed, along with need to seek to create such advantages by using the Internet to do things differently, through innovation or by inventive pricing. The things that Internet technology enables organizations to do which they could not do easily before include: broadcasting information internally and externally; making information much more easily available; messaging; increasing speed of delivery; direct customer contact; selling; buying; ordering; educating; exchanging information and views; monitoring competitors and the marketplace; graphics/pictures; improving customer service and value; analyzing customer needs; reaching new markets; and improving choice.
This paper is a history of ideas about business strategy and how they came to be influenced by competitive thinking. Both academics and practitioners' contributions are noted. The bulk of the paper focuses on efforts in the 1970s and the 1980s to deepen the analysis of industry attractiveness and competitive position and, since then, to add a historical or time-dimension to what used to be predominantly static modes of analysis.
This paper examines the relationship between planning process sophistication and the financial performance of a select group of small firms in a growth industry. Multivariate analysis of variance is used to identify statistically significant differences between firms that employ sophisticated plans and those that do not. The results support previous research on strategic planning and financial performance.
Many prior researchers have criticized business planning, arguing that it interferes with the efforts of firm founders to undertake more valuable actions to develop their fledgling enterprises. In this paper, we challenge this negative view of business planning, arguing that business planning is an important precursor to action in new ventures. By helping firm founders to make decisions, to balance resource supply and demand, and to turn abstract goals into concrete operational steps, business planning reduces the likelihood of venture disbanding and accelerates product development and venture organizing activity. Empirically, we examine 223 new ventures initiated in the first 9 months of 1998 by a random sample of Swedish firm founders and provide support for our hypotheses.
Job Creation and Destruction is the culmination of a long, ongoing research program at the Center for Economic Studies. Using the most complete plant- level data source currently available--the Longitudinal Research Data constructed by the Census Bureau--it focuses on the U.S. manufacturing sector from 1972 to 1988 and develops a statistical portrait of the microeconomic adjustments to the many economic events that affect businesses and workers. The picture that emerges is one of large, persistent, and highly concentrated gross job flows, with job destruction dominating the cyclical feaures of net job flows. The authors describe in detail those characteristics that destroy and create jobs over time (including industry of origin, wage payments, international trade exposure, factor intensity, size, age, and productivity performance), while also providing a broader measure of the process that will be directly relevant to macroeconomists and policymakers.
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