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'Venturesome consumer' Drives US Entrepreneurship |
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| 07/04/2009 | |
| Professor John Quelch - Lincoln Filene Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and former Dean of London Business School - thinks the character of the American consumer could have something to do with why the US is so successful entrepreneurially. He mentions a recent special report on Entrepreneurship in the Economist [March 14th-20th] which surveys America's global lead in entrepreneurial activity. "There is barely an acknowledgment of what Amar Bhide has appealingly termed 'the venturesome consumer'," he says. "Yet this willingness to adopt new products, new processes and new services more rapidly than consumers in other countries may be the most important of all enablers of entrepreneurship and innovation in America." Quelch lists six factors: Wealth, Mobility, Immigration, Independence, Recognition, and Technology. Each of these, he says, are traits that apply equally to entrepreneurs and consumers. -- Meanwhile, in the latest Harvard Business Review, Prof Quelch and Katherine E. Jocz co-author a paper on 'How to Market in a Downturn', and the piece is précised in the Working Knowledge e-newsletter. Quelch highlights the fact that "in a recession consumers become value oriented, distributors are concerned about cash, and employees worry about their jobs." However "a downturn is no time to stop spending on marketing," he says. You can read more here: http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/quelch/2009/03/how_marketers_should_plan_for.html |
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