Finance: Breakthrough Technologies

Finance: Breakthrough Technologies

Aligning Framework, Gap in Business Research, and Literature Matrix

Finance is integral to business operations, purpose, and functions. Financial status indicates the overall health of a business and plays a significant part in controlling business growth. Growth is multifaceted, and it can include increased market capitalization, increased number of employees, expanding to new locations, producing more or new products and services, and targeting a new demographic. Access to financial resources is an enabler of such expansion opportunities. This paper addresses how a lack of financial resources limits Breakthrough Technologies’ capacity to expand its plants and boundaries to more centralized locations.

Finance: Breakthrough Technologies

Business Problem and Gap in Practice: Lack of Financial Resources for Business Expansion

The identified problem is a lack of business expansion, and the associated gap in practice is a lack of financial resources. Breakthrough Technologies has not expanded its plants and boundaries to more centralized locations across the United States to enhance manufacturing and distribution, leading to decreased sales. Jerry Whitman and Betty West attribute the lack of expansion to a lack of financial resources to support strategic decisions regarding which areas in the country would be more suitable to expand to. It is a significant problem because, although the company wants to expand, it cannot do so because of financial constraints. There is a relationship between access to financial resources and business growth or expansion. Most companies, especially small-scale companies, struggle with access to financial resources, which limits business expansion and competitive growth. Conclusively, financial health is crucial for competitive growth.

(Finance: Breakthrough Technologies)

Scholarly and Practitioner Frameworks Supporting the Chosen gap in Practice

Expanding to new locations is a form of business growth. Business expansion is an advanced competitive strategy that would allow the company to serve more people, reduce the distance between its business operations and consumers, increase operations efficiency, and increase sales. As the competitive landscape becomes fiercer, businesses want to identify appropriate strategies and innovations adaptations and transformations to remain relevant and competitive. A lack of adaptations and transformations can lead to decreased revenue, as in the case of Breakthrough Technologies. The company has focused its efforts on business acquisitions that have not materialized. The long-term sustainability of the business depends on strategic business growth approaches, one being expanding the plants and extending boundaries to centralized locations. However, it is challenging due to financial constraints.

The selected frameworks are access to financial resources impact on business growth and expansion and financial development as an enabler to competitive growth. Research indicates a direct relationship between financial growth/development or access to financial resources and business growth. Minh and Thuc (2022) investigate the relationship between financial development and business growth. According to Minh and Thuc (2022), financial development is integral to business growth, and managers should focus on growth by bolstering the financial system depth to allow businesses to acquire favorable conditions to access external financial sources. Hossain (2020) explored the relationship between financial resources, financial literacy, and small firm growth and found that finance and financial literacy are positively and significantly related to business financial and non-financial growth. Therefore, businesses with better access to financial resources can achieve more financial and non-financial growth. Per Amadasun and Mutezo (2021), access to finance impacts competitive growth, and limited access to finance is a constraint to business growth. Businesses can access more funding with better access to financial resources. Additionally, Fiala (2019) found that access to finance is critical to enterprise growth. The study found a relationship between access to financial resources and increased profitability.

(Finance: Breakthrough Technologies)

How the Selected Scholarly and Practitioner Frameworks Apply to Current Trends in the Field of Strategy and Innovation

Current trends in the field of strategy and innovation increased technological adoption and competition in the business environment, new direction in strategic thinking, including reorienting corporate objectives and identifying complex sources of competitive advantage, including business expansion, differentiation, and making organization informal. For the selected case scenario, a relatable trend would be identifying complex sources of competitive advantage, including business expansion. This trend aligns with increased competition in the business world today, prompting businesses to be creative in their adaptations and transformation. For instance, Breakthrough Technologies expanding into more centralized locations is a source of competitive advantage. The selected frameworks, which include access to financial resources and financial development, apply to this trend. The frameworks provide that for businesses to expand, either they have access to financial resources, including external sources like loans or have healthy financial development or growth. Financial development, which entails increased profitability and finance, allows the business to fund its expansion initiatives. However, these initiatives can be costly, necessitating external financial support, which a business must be able to access to expand. Supporting evidence indicates a clear relationship between access to financial resources and financial growth and business expansion (Minh & Thuc, 2022; Hossain, 2020; Amadasun & Mutezo, 2021; Fiala, 2019). Expanding its boundaries would allow Breakthrough Technologies access to more markets and serve more customers, which is a competitive advantage.

Why the Selected Frameworks Properly Align with a Specific Problem and Gap in Practice

The business problem identified is the inability to expand plants and extend boundaries to more centralized areas. The gap in practice is the lack of financial resources to support this strategic decision. From the story, there seems to be a link between business expansion and finance. The frameworks identified and supporting evidence align with the identified business problem and the gap in practice as they indicate that access to financial resources and financial development impact business growth strategies and competitive growth. According to Minh and Thuc (2022), financial development is crucial to business growth, and managers should focus on growth by bolstering the financial system depth to allow businesses to acquire favorable conditions to access external financial sources. Hossain (2020) found that finance and financial literacy are positively and significantly related to business financial and non-financial growth. According to Amadasun and Mutezo (2021), access to finance impacts competitive growth, and limited access to finance is a constraint to business growth. Businesses can access more funding with better access to financial resources. Fiala (2019) also found that access to finance is critical to enterprise growth. Conclusively, the frameworks support the lack of financial resources as a limitation to Breakthrough Technologies’ lack of expansion to centralized areas.

(Finance: Breakthrough Technologies)

A Business Problem and Project Appropriate for The Field of Strategy and Innovation

The current approach to the expansion of Breakthrough Technologies practices has been unsuccessful and has led the business into financial struggles, which means the current policies are not working. To expand and achieve competitive growth, Breakthrough Technologies needs a project to help access more financial resources or enhance its financial development. The project would involve establishing an enabling policy that would see the business improve its financial management and decisions to enhance financial development. The story indicates that the company’s leadership have contributed significantly to the declining trend involving sales and profits. The policy would see the managers stop endeavors in financially risky and unrewarding projects like business acquisitions and focus on financial development through increased productivity and sales that would strengthen the company’s financial system and open it to more favorable conditions to access external financial sources (Hossain, 2020). The company needs a well-developed financial system and financially literate workforce that can ease constraints to accessing financial resources.

The Role of Removing Personal Biases in The Project Discovery Process

Personal biases can occur consciously or unconsciously, impacting negatively on the decision-making process. Managing personal bias in project discovery, development, and implementation is imperative to the success of the project. The company’s decision-makers have to be aware of bias in project discovery and create a safe environment to explore and reflect on it. It is crucial to ensure a diverse project team or decision-making team to ensure diversity in ideas and robust decision-making. Diversity thinking is critical in eliminating personal biases.

Reflection

This exercise offers an opportunity to relate to a scenario on strategic decision-making. Strategies to achieve advanced competitive advantage are crucial in the current competitive and ruthless business environment. This activity provides insights into how different variables interact, impacting a business; strategic decisions. From the activity, it is evident that businesses cannot expand or grow without adequate financial support, either from financial development internally o external financial sources like loans. I have learned strategies to enhance financial development and what managers can do better to reduce financial constraints that limit competitive growth. The lessons learned will be useful in future career spaces in business and financial management.

References

Amadasun, D. E., & Mutezo, A. T. (2021). Influence of access to finance on the competitive growth of SMEs in Lesotho. Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1027267/v1

Fiala, N. (2019). Access to Finance and Enterprise growth: Evidence from an experiment in Uganda. International Labour Office. https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/ed_emp/documents/publication/wcms_432287.pdf

Hossain, M. M. (2020). Financial resources, financial literacy and small firm growth: Does private organizations support matter? Journal of Small Business Strategy (archive Only), 30(2), 35–58. Retrieved from https://libjournals.mtsu.edu/index.php/jsbs/article/view/1187

Minh, N. N., & Thuc, N. N. (2022). Financial development and business growth: A case of the Southern Key Economic Region. Cogent Economies & Finance. https://doi.org/10.1080/23322039.2022.2099501

Finance: Breakthrough Technologies