Business Plan Archive Online

5/7/2010 4:35:19 PM By E.J. Reedy
Business plans are an as yet relatively untapped source for researchers but that might change with the release of the Business Plan Archive. 

Business Plan Archive is an online repository for business plans and related planning documents. Webmergers.com and the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business have built this site, in cooperation with the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University and with financial support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, to collect business plans for posterity. All of the documents we collect will ultimately be deposited in the Archives and Manuscript Library at the University of Maryland, College Park, where future entrepreneurs and business researchers will have access to learn from this remarkable period of technological and organizational creativity.


Comments

Michael - 5/7/2010 7:29:40 PM
I can't find information on the website about the database's coverage: what years/industries does it cover?
David Kirsch - 5/10/2010 8:17:50 AM
Michael, the bulk of the plans in the Business Plan Archive come from firms seeking to commercialize the internet during the late 1990s. There are a few older plans, along with some that have trickled in over the past few years (please contact me if you have specific interests, questions, etc.), but most are from firms founded from 1995-2000.
Mark A - 7/17/2011 11:13:58 PM
Sounds like a good resource to create a timeline of the innovative changes leading to todays online technology, business and social network marketing. That said I think a good addition to your business plan archive would consist of business plans developed from 2005 to the present as these would best define key social network marketing methods of internet based businesses that todays successful corporate and home based entrenprenuer would find most beneficial. Such an archive is being compiled as we speak.
David Kirsch - 7/18/2011 12:55:35 PM
Mark, yes it stands to reason that more recent plans will contain more recent recipes for market action along the lines you suggest. From the perspective of an entrepreneur seeking actionable content, more recent plans will be more valuable. From the research perspective, the opposite argument could be made: we can learn more about the general features of entrepreneurial success and failure by being somewhat removed in time from the specifics of any single market action. Also, I'm curious when you say that such an archive is being compiled "as we speak". Is there a specific collecting effort that we reseaerchers should know about? Please do let us know.

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Developing better data is part of Kauffman's long-term strategy for advancing better research and policy on entrepreneurship and innovation. Data Maven is place you can connect with new data developments, provide us feedback on possible new projects, and contribute to the community seeking to improve entrepreneurship and innovation measurement.

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E.J. Reedy is a manager in Research and Policy at the Kauffman Foundation. Learn more ...

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