Contemplating Knudsen's Baseline: Where Small is not so Beautiful

© 2005, Copyright The Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship. Does the Internet’s World Wide Web (the web) represent an opportunity or threat to the small firms of the world? In line with recent calls for entrepreneurship research to adopt a more evolutionary approach, this article considers the context, process, and possible outcomes of small place-based firms operating in a webimpacted environment. Despite initial optimism that the web would provide a level-playing field for firms of all sizes, little evidence exists to support such a notion. When the learning abilities deemed necessary to exploit theweb are considered, it would seem that only the most entrepreneurial of small firms would likely adapt to webimpacted environments. It is concluded that the present rate of web-based change represents a unique and valuable research opportunity for entrepreneurship researchers.