116 ENTREPRENEURSHIP
ENTRY WEDGES
Entry wedges are momentum factors.^8 They are part of the business model story. A
wedge is not really a full-blown strategy, but is rather the methods the founders use to
get their initial foothold in a business. Because the entry wedge becomes an important
part of the firm’s unique history, it may, from an RBV perspective, influence later strate-
gic decisions. Unique historical conditions are impossible to copy. Therefore, the entry
wedge can be part of the firm’s sustainable competitive advantage.Major Wedges
All new ventures employ one or more of three major entry wedges: new product or ser-
vice, parallel competition, and franchising.I Can Get It for You (Almost) Wholesale
He works out of a 400-square-foot office with
just a couch, fax machine, phone, white
board, and a couple of computers. He has
two part-time employees. He doesn’t manu-
facture any items or inventory any products,
and he doesn’t have any special training or
unusual skills.
Still, Brad Wilson’s company took in over
$1 million in revenue in 2005, and Wilson
expects to do even better now that his Web
site has a new name and some new features.
Wilson’s site is an online discount shop-
ping portal for savvy bargain shoppers. He
started it when he was a student at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
after negotiating a super low price for a 27-
inch flat-screen TV from Amazon.com by
combining Amazon’s sale price, an e-coupon,
and a free shipping offer. Friends and family
asked him to find similar online deals for
them, so Wilson created dealsdujour.com, an
“affiliate” site that referred consumers to ven-
dor sites with sale specials and other good
deals in exchange for a fee from the vendor.
The site is now known as BradsDeals
(www.bradsdeals.com). Wilson works with
more than 700 merchant partners, including
clicks and bricks retailers like Gap, Office
Depot, Target, and Internet stores likeAmazon.com and Overstock.com. Under the
trademarked slogan Handpicked DealsTM,
BradsDeals lists a handful of specials every
day. Each item has a brief description
explaining why it is such a good deal, and a
link to click through so that the shopper can
get that low price and Wilson can get his
commission. Shoppers can also use the affili-
ate site to search for deals by vendor or by
category (such as apparel, cars, or pets).
They can also use the site to access
coupons that are good at retailers like Dick’s
or Kohl’s.
Wilson claims that approximately 1.5 mil-
lion shoppers have spent more than $100
million at the sites of his merchant partners.
“We have tried to create a user-friendly site
and a complete shopping experience for our
visitors,” he explains. BradsDeals has been
honored by the online marketing industry for
helping Internet retailers acquire new cus-
tomers and increase their revenues.SOURCE: Adapted from Gwendolyn Bounds, “Finding
Good Bargains Is Also a Good Business,” The Wall Street
Journal, January 4, 2005. Retrieved from the Web January
4, 2005.
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/O,,SB1 10479919259915
983,00.html, and http://www.BradsDeals.com.STREET STORY 4.1