Effective Thinking in Entrepreneurial Decision Making Free

Cowgirl Chocolates

  • What makes the company described in the case “entrepreneurial” based on what we have discussed in class?

The company described in the case study is “entrepreneurial” based because the owner of the company was thinking effectually, while making important decisions. Marilyn had a strong intention to achieve business success in the nearest future. She believed that the future of her company could be shaped by her actions, behaviours, and decisions. She was aware of the fact that her own actions, behaviours, and decisions could guarantee control of the company with the help of relevant people, who would be engaged in fulfilment of her tasks. For example, Marilyn placed emphasis on the role of advertising in her company’s growth. She paid $3000 for her ad to   promote her product, “trying to get her four-year old business to profitability” (Lawrence et al., 2014, p. 1). She utilized various promotional options, such as participation in trade shows and  creation of publicity opportunities. Also, Marilyn made an attempt to use distributors in order to increase sales of her product. Her product Cowgirl Chocolate was sold in different forms to attract attention of consumers: “individually wrapped truffles, chocolate bars, and a hot caramel dessert sauce” (Lawrence et al., 2014, p. 2). Special attention was given to selection of her product packaging. She used her creativity to develop excellent design of her product packaging. Due to Marilyn’s effectual reasoning, the company was ready to achieve success in the market (Sarasvathy, 2001).  Marilyn was focused on cost reduction to enable any potential failures to occur earlier and at lower levels of investment.

  • What is the company’s “competitive advantage”? Is it sustainable?

The company’s “competitive advantage” is the quality of her product. It is known that Marilyn placed emphasis on acceptance her product by consumers. To achieve this goal, she was interested in improvement of her product quality. “All of Cowgirl Chocolate products had won awards, either in the annual Fiery Food Challenges sponsored by Chile Pepper Magazine or the Scovie Award Competitions sponsored by Fiery Foods magazine” (Lawrence et al., 2014, p. 5). The company’s competitive advantage is not sustainable enough because it is not difficult for other companies to exceed its attributes and abilities (Curkovic et al., 2007). The company was focused on selection of the proper distribution and pricing strategies, which allowed to promote the product and achieve customer loyalty. Marilyn was interested in the issues like how to use the price and the size of the chocolate to direct consumers in their purchasing decisions. Also, Marilyn placed her product in different food stores to promote her product quality. Besides, she used the services of online retailers who sold the product online. Unfortunately, the product was not successful because the sales were low. Marilyn’s strategy was to attain a competitive advantage in the market, but her attempts to do it were often not successful.

  • Do you agree with the strategic decisions made by company? Explain.

I agree with the strategic decisions made by the company because many of these decisions were tactical and helped the company to promote the product in some way or another. Although Marilyn made efforts to create publicity for her product, she failed to attract attention of customers because of her poor recognition of the market demands. She needed to avoid changing her direction in maintaining a competitive advantage because many of her new ideas were unachievable. The company’s strategy was to promote the product to potential customers in different ways. The key idea should had been to assess the demands for the product in order to deal with other chocolate companies which competed in the market (Tellis, 1986). As a matter of fact, the company’s strategic decisions, both long term and short term ones, were aimed at meeting the strategic goals set by Marilyn. However, Marilyn lacked financial support to ensure that all her newly developed projects could be successful.  According to researchers, “Senior leaders increasingly embed paradoxes into their organization’s strategy, but struggle to manage them effectively” (Smith, 2014, p. 1592). Marilyn needs to avoid paradoxes to ensure that her company could achieve a comparative advantage.

References

Curkovic, S., Vickery, S., Droge, C. (2007). Quality‐related Action Programs: Their Impact on Quality Performance and Firm Performance. Decision Sciences, 31(4); 885-902.

Lawrence, J. J., Morris, L. J., Geiger, J. J. (2014). Cowgirl Chocolates. Miami University.

Sarasvathy, S. D. (2001). Effectual reasoning in entrepreneurial decision making: existence and   bounds,” Academy of Management Proceedings, 1: 1-12.

Smith, W. K. (2014). Dynamic Decision Making: A Model of Senior Leaders Managing Strategic             Paradoxes. Academy of Management Journal, 57(6): 1592-1623.

Tellis, G. J. (1986). Beyond the Many Faces of Price: An Integration of Pricing Strategies.           Journal of Marketing, 50(4): 146-160.

The terms offer and acceptance. (2016, May 17). Retrieved from

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016.

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

freeessays.club (2016) The terms offer and acceptance [Online].
Available at:

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]
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