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E-entrepreneurship: Proposed use of the Internet in a business plan

competition in New Zealand

Article · October 2011

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 e -entrepreneurship: Proposed use of the Internet in a business
plan competition in New Zealand

Robert J McQueen

Department of Management Systems, University of Waikato

PB 3105, Hamilton, New Zealand
bmcqueen@waikato.ac.nz

Keywords:
Internet, business plan competition, New Zealand

Abstract
A business plan competition for new ventures presented an opportunity to examine the
importance of any Internet components in the plans submitted by participants. Of 273 plans
submitted for the second of three phases in the competition, about 40% contained some
significant Internet component. Nine industry/product categories were developed from the
data, and in these groupings, the percentage with an Internet component ranged from 0 to
67%. Five revenue model categories were developed to categorise the main ways that revenue
was to be generated in the business plans, and for those plans which had an Internet
component, the centrality and sophistication of this component was analyzed. Interviews with
the organisers, mentors and participants in the competition were conducted to extend the
quantitative analysis of the plans.

Introduction
Entrepreneurs’ awareness of the rapid growth of the Internet in recent years has led to the
conception of many ideas for business startups, where the Internet has either a central or
supporting role in how the business will be developed. Until the recent “dot com” crash, the
eagerness of investors to participate in the financial support of any kind of Internet based or
supported new venture business proposal has been staggering, and the launch and high public
profile of these startups may have encouraged others to think of ways to get a share of the
action.
A business plan is an important document that transforms embryonic ideas into a well thought
out prospectus for potential investors and other financing sources. The process of developing
an entrepreneurial idea into a business plan that is of the quality to attract the interest of
prospective investors and financiers entails a significant amount of effort, and requires the
entrepreneur to understand markets, market shares, sales projections, cash burn rates, and
many other aspects of starting a business. The effort put into the the business plan
development is often rewarded with a clearer view by the entrepreneurs of the potential risks
and rewards of the venture, and forms the basis on which constructive comments and
suggestions can be solicited and received from external advice givers.
Business plans developed by prospective entrepreneurs thus provide a window through which
to examine the industries and business areas which these entrepreneurs feel have potential for
a business start-up. In addition, these plans indicate to what extent the entrepreneurs envisage
using the Internet as a main focus or in a supporting role for their business idea. Business plan
competitions are designed to encourage, motivate, and assist prospective entrepreneurs to
work through a process in which they develop and refine their ideas into documents that can
be used to seek investment finance.
This research focuses on the role of the Internet perceived by prospective entrepreneurs, as
embodied in the business plans they entered in a business plan competition in New Zealand.
We begin with a brief discussion of business plans competitions, and then describe the
particular business plan competition run in New Zealand in 2000 which was known as the
Great New Zealand Business Venture competition. This is followed by an analysis of the 273
plans submitted to the second phase of this competition, which will examine the industry and
product groupings, and the centrality and sophistication of the role proposed for the Internet
in these business plans.

Entrepreneurs and the Internet

Previous research on understanding entrepreneurship have been influenced by two schools of
thought: personality traits, and the need to achieve; and contingency thinking, influenced by
the environment and situation (Littunen, 2000). Many authors argue that the success of new
ventures relies “solely on the characteristics of the entrepreneur” (Sandberg & Hofer, 1987,
p.5; Blin, 1998; Busenitz & Lau, 1996; Chaganti et al., 1995; Naffziger et al., 1994; Naman &
Slevin, 1993; Robbins & Pearce, 1993; Roure & Maidique, 1986; Sexton & Bouman, 1985).
However, other authors say the structure of the industry and the nature of the venture strategy,
which includes the revenue model and the use of technology, is of equal importance to the
success of new ventures (Gartner et al., 1999; Sandberg & Hofer, 1987; Chandler & Hanks,
1994; McDougall et al., 1992; Naman & Slevin, 1993; Harper, 1991; Deane et al., 1991;
Haskins & Petit, 1988).
One recent study of entrepreneurs across eight countries found that entrepreneurship may be
triggered by factors which are influenced by cultural specificity (Morrison, 2000). One factor
which might influence the inclusion of an Internet component in a new venture proposal
might be previous experience with either the Internet, or perhaps more generally, whether the
entrepreneurs had experience with IT in their previous business experiences. A potential link
between those with previous IT or Internet experience and the inclusion of a significant
Internet component in the new venture might be implied from an Australian study (Mazzarol
et.al., 1999) in which 93 entrepreneurs (previous or intending) were asked to explain the
reasons motivating their intention to found a business. Of those interviewed, only 29% had no
previous experience in the field of business in which they had established (or were intending
to establish) their new venture.
Whether new ventures have a significant Internet-based component or not, entrepreneurs
might be generally characterised as interested in new ideas and ways of doing things, and are
likely to be well represented in the growing proportion of the population who are regular
users of the Internet. For those prospective entrepreneurs who are not necessarily expert in IT
or Internet technologies, there may be many who would be interested in including an Internet
component in a more traditional new venture startup.

Business plan competitions

A business plan competition is designed to provide incentive and assistance for entrepreneurs
to develop a formal business plan for their proposed new venture, so that the business aspects
of their ideas are clear to themselves, and also to prospective investors. These competitions
are often run by or in conjunction with universities. MIT was one of the early innovators in
1989, with US$10,000 in prizes and 54 entries (Murphy, 2000). A search of the web 1 revealed
that 39 universities in the edu domain have a page that indicates they are involved with such a
competition. International consulting firm McKinsey & Co., inspired by the MIT competition
(Dodt et al, 1999) developed a pa ckaged approach to business plan competitions which was
presented to regional governments and private sector entities for sponsorship of the prize
money and running costs. Guides to preparing a business plan for the competition are made
available as in the Netherlands (Kubr et al, 1998) and New Zealand (Great New Zealand
Business Venture, 2000). Competitions based on the McKinsey structure began in Germany
in 1996, and have been run since in Europe, North America and other parts of the world.
Table 1 gives examples of some of the previous invocations. These competitions were often
based at a university or research institute, providing high exposure (and incentive to
participate) to scientists in those organisations, and therefore particularly attracted ventures
involving the Internet, electronics and biotechnology.

Location years in country Phase 1 entries

Germany- Berlin, Munich, Cologne 1996,1996,1997 116, 140, 50
Switzerland-Zurich 1997, 2000, 2002 500, 75, *
Sweden-Gothenburg, Stockholm 1998, 2000, 2001 187, *, *
Netherlands -Amsterdam 1998, 2001,2002 *,*,*
USA-Dallas, Pittsburg, Chicago, Michigan 1998,1999,2000,2001 133,260,200,*
South Africa 2000 1100
Brazil-Sao Paulo 2000 700
India-New Delhi 2000 1200
New Zealand 2000 420
Malaysia 2001, 2002 447, *
Finland 2001 150
Norway 2002 *
Table 1. Locations of McKinsey-inspired business plan competitions
* data not available

The Great New Zealand Business Venture competition

The processes and shape of the business plan competition undertaken in New Zealand in early
2000 was based on the previous competitions around the world which had used the McKinsey
model. With a population of just under 4 million, New Zealand is a small player in the world
of international business. However, it is well known for its entrepreneurial spirit and the “can
do” attitude of its people. A number of business sponsors agreed to contribute in a variety of
ways, including cash for the prizes and operating expenses, services (website, publicity) and

1
November, 2000 with search string “business plan competition” host:edu
by providing people to present seminars and be available for judging and mentoring
assignments. While the competition was based in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city,
seminars for local participants were run in a number of cities throughout the country.
Communication and information exchange with participants was intended to be primarily
through email, the competition website, and a set of regional seminars. The incentives for
entrants included NZ$360,000 in prize money spread across the three phases, access to free
expertise through mentors, and the desire to wind up with a well constructed business plan
that could be used to seek venture capital. There were a number of criteria used in judging the
entries, but scalability of the revenue model, and the quality and appropriateness of the skills
represented on the venture team were important.
The CEO for the term of the competition was a well respected senior person from the
consulting industry with a track record and a range of contacts in the business community. A
consultant from McKinsey was seconded to the competition on an approximately 50% time
basis, and further clerical and administrative staff were available as required from the
McKinsey office in Auckland, where the administration was based. The CEO’s role was very
much hands -on, and she interacted by telephone, email and meetings with all of the entrants at
some stage of the competition, and read all of the submissions that were made. She was
interviewed about the role of the Internet in the business plans that were submitted to the
competition.
The Internet was intended, and did become the major communications vehicle for the
competition, and useful information such as updates to contest rules, and copies of seminar
slides were posted frequently to the website. A 75 page guide to preparing a business plan
was available both in printed form and in electronic form. Website hits for the six month
duration of the competition were around 150,000, and around 4000 incoming emails were
handled, usually with a corresponding outgoing email. Only about 5% of the participants had
difficulties in using Internet access to keep up to speed with the competition information, and
had to use facilities such as computers at public libraries to access the website and their email.
The CEO commented that “…the sophistication of the business ideas was a little bit lower
than we had expected, probably because the previous competitions that had been run in
Europe had been based at universities, while in New Zealand, we attracted proportionally
more of the off-the -street type of entrepreneur, rather than scientists in universities whose day
to day work was with a sophisticated technology idea…”
Scalability was an important criterion for judging. Some entrants targeted very narrow
geographical areas or very narrow industry sectors within New Zealand, and in the view of
the judges, were likely to quickly get to a position where they maxed out in terms of their
growth opportunities, mostly before they reached breakeven.
Teams registered 1450
phase 1 submissions 420
phase 2 submissions* 273
phase 3 submissions 86
*147 of these entered at phase 2, without previously submitting a phase 1 plan

Analysis of the plans

273 entries were received for phase 2 of the competition, and our analysis is based on this
data.
Our research looked at where the new venture ideas were situated with respect to traditional
business categories. Standard industry classification structures were initially tried, but found
to be unsuitable because they generated a large number of classifications, most containing a
small or null population. Therefore, a hybrid set of business and product type groupings,
which described the intent of the venture in a small and manageable set of categories, was
iteratively derived and evolved to suit the population of business plans submitted to this
competition. The main business or product thrust of each of the plans examined was assigned
to one of the categories. Each category contained plans which either did or did not have a
Internet component, and a percentage was calculated accordingly. Table 2 contains this data,
ranked by the percentage having an Internet component. For example, 47 plans were ventures
providing goods and services (G&S) for businesses, of which just under half (47%) had a
Internet component.
Category N % Internet
Computer software, software development, ASP, consultancy 39 67
Media, advertising, broadcasting, publishing 12 58
G&S for businesses 47 47
Food, travel, tourism 28 39
Education, training, information services 31 36
Computer hardware, other electronics 11 27
G&S for consumers, including medical and retail 61 25
G&S for recreation, entertainment, games 18 22
G&S from or for agriculture, construction, energy, environment 26 0
Table 2. Business / product thrust categories of all plans

Revenue models, Internet centrality and sophistication

Generating an initial revenue stream is considered crucial for most new business ventures,
both to provide a cash flow to sustain operations, and also as a verification of the revenue and
profit projections of the business plan for potential investors.
The 273 entries received for phase 2 of the competition were initially coded for whether they
contained a Internet component, and 99 (36%) were found to have this component. 83 of
these plans were available for further investigation. These plans were then analysed on how
revenue was expected to be developed in the venture. A list of 15 revenue models was derived
iteratively as each plan was reviewed in turn and unique approaches uncovered. These
categories were then distilled into the reduced, more balanced set of five which is shown in
table 3.
The sale and rental revenue model category in the table tends to include mainly one -time
business transactions, in that each is discrete, and generally with no obligation on the part of
buyer or seller to repeat the transaction. The categories in the lower part of the table tend to
contain repetitive transactions, with each expected to be one of a series over time, possibly at
regular time intervals. Many businesses will have combinations of revenue sources, such as
subscription fees and advertising fees coming from different kinds of customers, as in the case
of a newspaper, or a combination of a subscription fee (right of access) and a transaction fee
from the same client, as in the case of a telephone company. Where multiple types of revenue
sources were proposed, the type which was expected to be the most important revenue source
for that venture was coded.
Revenue model Comment Example
Sales and rentals: 1) for tangible goods, 1)manufacturer, retail shop
1)Sale of tangible goods ownership transfers to 2) consultant, plumber
2)Sale of services customer 3) prospect referral,
3)Sale of intangibles; license to 2) services may be on a mailing list names,
use hourly or contract price software, music
4)Sale of derivatives 3) license value not in 4) insurance
5)Rental or use of tangible assets media (i.e. CD), and may
be digitally delivered
4) derivatives may be the
sale of a promise or
contingent promise
5) rentals usually involve
a recurring payment
Subscription fee recurring payment, value newspaper, telephone
to buyer in access monthly charge
Commission ownership not taken by stock brokerage, sales
agent, value to buyer, agent
seller in deal facilitation
Transaction fee payment on volume of use, telephone long distance
value to buyer in charges
consumption
Advertising value to ad buyer in classified newspaper ad
subsequent goods sale
Table 3. Revenue models observed in plans examined
The plans were further assessed on two additional factors. A rating using a 1-5 scale was
given for centrality of the Internet to the business idea. For example, a business plan which
proposed the collection of transaction data from retailers’ point of sale cash registe rs through
an Internet connection, and the delivery of reports back to the retailer over the same channel
would be coded as having the Internet as a central component of the business idea. On the
other hand, a business plan which had as its main thrust the development of an innovative
product, such as a pest trap, and which planned to create a web page to provide information
and advertising in support of other sales channels would be coded as having the Internet as
ancillary to the main business idea. Therefore, a rating of 5 indicated the Internet was
absolutely crucial (i.e. delivery of services) to the business idea, and at the other end of the
scale, a rating of 1 was used if the use of the Internet was only peripheral (i.e. use in support
of sales channels).
A second measure (low, medium, high) was used to assess the technical sophistication of the
use of the Internet. For example, use of the Internet to support real-time individualised
streaming video would be ranked as high, while creation of a simple static web page presence
would be ranked as low.
The results of the coding of the 83 plans examined is given in Table 4.
 Revenue type N Mean of % low % medium % high
centrality sophistication sophistication sophistication
sales & rentals 27 3.7 74 22 4
subscription 20 4.5 35 45 20
commission 15 4.6 53 47 0
transaction fee 11 4.5 18 36 46
advertising 10 4.1 70 10 20
Table 4 Revenue types, centrality and sophistication of business plans with an Internet
component

Perceptions about the role of the Internet

In this section the views of the administrator, mentors, and participants that were interviewed
are reported with respect to the role of revenue models in new venture business plans.

CEO
The competition CEO observed that “…there were a large number using the Internet [in their
business plans] as an advertising medium or shop front and not for any other more serious
purpose, but there were a number that were using it in sophisticated ways, such as an on line
rostering service, exchange type businesses, quite a lot of ASP and interactive services for
small businesses, website designers, and similar ideas.” She continued “There was a limited
understanding of the various revenue models that are available to you through using the
Internet, and excessive reliance on advertising as a source of revenue.”
For teams which were not existing players in a marketplace, she felt that there was sometimes
a lack of realism in the opportunity for a new venture to come in, get established, and take a
majority or dominant position in a marketplace where existing incumbents are positioning
themselves to fill the space in a number of ways. However, teams which were working on
finding the right alliance partner were in a much more favourable position.
From her personal contact with the people involved in the plans submitted, she felt that quite
a large number of the teams that constructed business plans that incorporated Internet
technology were quite capable of designing their own website or setting up trading systems.
Of those that weren’t, some approached partners with technology skills to get access to that
expertise in both the initial phases and also on-going. Some of the technology partners took
equity positions in the new venture, and some arranged for later payment, like a back loaded
loan.

Mentors
Participants could request assignment of a mentor who had expertise in an area the team felt
they were lacking. The mentors would have one or more meetings with the team members,
listen to their business ideas and plans, and then offer opinion and advice. Some teams
requested mentors with an IT or Internet technology background, and two of these mentors
were interviewed for this research.
One mentor was particularly interested in the business models that technology based teams
were envisaging. He said “… the people I spoke to all seemed to struggle, not with the
technology, but how to make money from an Internet business model”. He felt that in a
business plan competition such as this, it would be difficult to see B2B transactio nal and
exchange business models evolving, as such transactional models require a serious (NZ$20
million) technical infrastructure and the business linkages, critical mass and partnerships to
make it work. The entry point for business plans using the Internet were more likely to be in
the B2C area, which could be considered to have three levels of sophistication: 1. static
brochureware, 2. acceptance of on-line payments, 3. real time dynamic updating of web
content, such as inventory levels. The B2C capability he saw in the teams he interacted with
was mostly in the lower and mid level of this sophistication hierarchy.
He felt that the Internet business models that are coming out of the USA didn’t scale down
well to the smaller New Zealand market size, such as the mix of subscription and transaction
revenue streams. Rather than trying to see where the technology can fit, it was better to start
by designing good business processes that make sense for the market size, and the technology
will be there to make it work. It was important to develop business models for SMEs that
could use the investment that had been made in infrastructure and catalogues for the New
Zealand market, and leverage them so that existing catalogues could be propagated out to all
the other marketplaces in which that firm wanted to participate.
Financing was often sought for downstream expenses, rather than up-front business planning.
He felt “…it is as important to finance the up-front expenses of business planning, such as
feasibility studies and proof of concepts, as it is to lease office space or buy capital
equipment….. and if you invest enough up front, some of the businesses may not get into the
trouble they might otherwise find…”.
Another mentor who advised technology based teams was very impressed by the enthusiasm,
great ideas, and “good old Kiwi ingenuity” that was demonstrated. However, she felt that
what was needed by many was the traditional principles of good business practice, budgeting,
and in particular, aspects of marketing like segmentation and customer acquisition. She
commented “…the irony of this all is that because these people are looking at pure innovation,
by their very mindset they don’t get hooked into these regular business practices….only one
team I saw had researched the market and started at the business end and were working
backwards…” while the rest of the teams had come from the technical end and were now
trying to understand the business dimensions.
On the technical side, while most teams had built something demonstrable for prospective
customers and investors to look at, she felt “…I didn’t really get a good, confident feeling
about how much they had really sorted out the technology in terms of a secure, robust,
reliable and potentially scalable system…”. She observed that while there were some great
ideas and fantastic people out there, there needs to be a little more nurturing, particularly in
reliability and scalability of the technical aspects, and in traditional areas of business practice
support.

Participants
Interviews were conducted with representatives of six of the teams which had an Internet
component in their plan. One entrepreneur indicated that if there was a ranked list of revenue
elements in their business plan, advertising would be close to the bottom of that list. Their
main revenue source was intended to be upfront web site development for each client, with
additional revenue flowing out of a strong, on-going relationship and value-adding
partnership with those clients.
Another entrepreneur had a revenue model that was based on transaction fees from a WAP
based service, and a relatively large up-front investment in development. Cash flow was not
expected to be large at start-up, and might be stagnated initially, but would grow once the
service took hold and the WAP technology took off in the mainstream. “Once it does, we’ll be
raking it in!”, he said.
A third entrepreneur had developed a rostering service which would be sold to medium sized
businesses, whose employees would then regularly visit a website with WAP phones to pick
up their rostered work schedules. This revenue model had the advantage of a customer
committing in advance to the service, rather than waiting for individuals to come along and
visit the website. Revenue would be generated from day one. The advantage for prospective
customers of going to a third party provider is that they don’t have to have sophisticated web
servers or run the security risk of opening up their intranets to the whole Internet.
Another team, one of the seven finalists of the competition, had a revenue model based on
advertising. They were developing a personalised and targeted Internet delivered streamed
audio service, including music, news and sports. Their plan involved giving away the service
to subscribers, while tracking subscriber listening profiles. Ads would be inserted into the
content stream in audio form. The value to prospective advertisers would be that ad deliveries
could be targeted and tracked (and confirmed as delivered) to an individual subscriber profile.
This revenue model implied a relatively slow ramp-up of ad revenue as the subscriber base
grew, while also requiring pre-launch development expense in creating the delivery
infrastructure. “…to get advertisers hooked and on-board, we proba bly won’t be able to
charge them the full-on rate right away….. we’ve calculated that from launch to the time we
start earning some income is probably about six months…”
Several teams targeted their venture on providing services to small businesses. One that was
interviewed was a providing sales analysis ASP service for small retailers, with POS data
being uploaded over the Internet, and analysis reports being returned the same way. The key
team members had primarily experience in the retail sector, and user experience with IT,
although a further team member with extensive IT experience was recently added.
The team developed a joint venture partnership with a large IT services provider, which
developed the browser client software, the back end processing software, and hosted the ASP
service. This meant that the partner did the costly up-front software development, and in turn
would share in the revenue streams that ensued. The service could also have been provided
without the Internet component, but by being on-line, it allowed the reports to provide
interfirm comparisons against their fellow franchise members, or other stores selling the same
type of products.
The person interviewed from this team felt that the key to rapid cash flow development was to
work towards a large number of subscribers by keeping the cost of the monthly subscription
fee at a low amount. Their method was to deal with the head office of retail franchise chains,
thereby attracting 50-100 users at a time once the franchise group decided to support the
service. He said “… in the present plan, we’ve struck the problem that the target markets that
we’ve focussed on are not fully Internet capable at the moment, or don’t have sufficient
bandwidth to easily access our service. So, our service is a little bit ahead of our time in terms
of small business customers while we wait for some of the faster access schemes to become
more commonly used….however, while we’re still finding a lot of people that are not high
users of even email, let alone othe r parts of the Internet, there is still a lot of growth in it, and
we’re right at the start of the wave, really… ”
Another entrepreneur interviewed, who was experienced with producing computer based
games, was proposing the development of an Internet based strategy game involving the
management of a football (soccer) team. He felt that using the Internet as the distribution and
interaction medium had several advantages over the traditional distribution of computer
games on a CD. The Internet would allow these games to be incrementally developed (new
features added easily) and introduced with lower overheads and effort than producing
packaging and CDs and using traditional game retail distribution channels.
The revenue model options for them included subscription, transaction (pay as you go) or
advertising. He felt that a mix of all three was appropriate for various parts of the world. In
some areas, like North America, credit card payments for subscription fees would be best. In
other places, a micro-payment model where the user’s bank account was debited for the time
played might be possible. But in areas of the world like South America where soccer is
popular, but credit and debit facilities are not so common, advertising might be the best way
to generate revenue.
The final entrepreneur interviewed commented that revenue models for businesses based on
the Internet still had to demonstrate characteristics of cash flow and profitability. “ …you
have to be more traditional in your approach as far as the business model goes. People
actually want to see real revenue streams as a possibility, they don’t want to see funny
money…”

Findings
There are a variety of roles for the Internet in the business plans examined in this study. One
group of plans showed a central and essential role for the Internet in the businesses that were
being proposed. The Internet provided unique capability, such as to collect data and deliver
reports to customers, and deliver entertainment and game content. The business idea was
based on Internet functionality, often with novel and innovative business concepts, and could
not exist without this functionality. Another role was to use the Internet in a support role. This
group of business proposals used the Internet to provide desirable capability to the business
idea, such as advertising, or connection with customers and suppliers. For this group, the
business idea could stand on its own without Internet functionality, and was often based on
traditional business ideas, such as retail shopfronts for products such as gifts and toys. A third
group of business plans had no stated role for the Internet.
The percent of plans that incorporated an Internet component varied quite dramatically by
industry/business category, indicating that some industries and businesses are viewed by
entrepreneurs as having natural affinity for incorporation of an Internet business component
(computer software), while others (construction, energy) showed little interest or awareness of
how the technology might be used.
Of the five revenue type groups (commission, transaction fee, subscription fee, advertising,
sales and rentals), the commission group had the highest mean of centrality of the Internet to
the business plan, followed closely by subscription and transaction fee groups. The sales and
rentals group had both the lowest mean centrality, and the lowest sophistication, of the five
groups. The plans in the transaction fee group had the highest technical sophistication in the
use of the Internet.
For those entrepreneurs who incorporated an important Internet component in their plans, the
interviews revealed that several factors may have led to the awareness of the potential
contribution of the Internet, such as previous IT education, business experience involving IT,
or a personal interest in computers. Traditional business advisors, such as accountants and
lawyers outside the major cities, were described as having very little expertise or influence
with respect to the prospective role that the Internet could play in business ideas. However,
where available, new venture nurturing mechanisms, such as incubators, networking meetings
with successful entrepreneurs, and exposure to technology expertise through the mentoring
programs of the business plan competition, were viewed to be very helpful in the
development of business ideas.

Conclusions
This study is intended to present a grounded first look at the role of the Internet and the
revenue models used in business plans submitted to a business plan competition. There
appears to be a relationship between the industry and product groupings developed, and the
likelihood that an Internet component is incorporated into business plans from that sector. For
those that have an Internet component, factors have been identified which may influence the
type of revenue model selected, which may in turn suggest further research to illuminate and
quantify these factors. From the interviews conducted with participants, it is clear that these
kind of business plan competitions stimulate and provide incentive for prospective
entrepreneurs to undertake the development of a business plan, which in turn helps them
refine the viability of their business idea, particularly with respect to revenue models and the
role of the Internet. These findings have limitations which may limit generalisation into other
contexts due to the environment of the specific business plan competition studied, its
geographic and cultural location in New Zealand, and the interpretations made of the data
available for analysis.

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 Glossary of acronyms used

ASP Application Service Provider - computer service bureaus which provide services to
their customers, such as retail sales data analysis, through an Internet connection
B2B Business to Business electronic commerce - example - procurement of industrial
components
B2C Business to Consumer electronic commerce - example - purchase of retail books
CD Compact disk - used for storage and delivery of digital data
CEO Chief Executive Officer
G&S Goods and Services
IT Information Technology - usually includes both computer hardware and application
software
MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA
POS Point Of Sale equipment - cash register and banking interface equipment
SME Small and Medium sized Entreprises
WAP Wireless Application Protocol - a programming interface for mobile phones

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