Building a Powerful Entrepreneurial Brand : The Role of Critical Success Factors and Their Impact on Competitive Advantage

The paper identifies the critical success factors that are required for the development of a powerful entrepreneurial brand. It also demonstrates the links between these factors, and highlights the competitive advantage derivable from the application of these factors. Two findings emerge from this study. The first offers a mix of 14 entrepreneurial and marketing-led issues that give rise to the critical success factors, which are mandatory for the development of a powerful entrepreneurial brand. The second finding puts forward ‘a powerful entrepreneurial brand development model', which gives a stage-by-stage exposition of how a strong entrepreneurial brand can be developed. Entrepreneurs together with senior managers with entrepreneurial spirit can draw on this model as a guide for developing powerful entrepreneurial brands. However, this study is based exclusively on the Nigerian business environment, and cannot be generalized without examining the subject in other environments and business sectors