Professional Staff Ltd., Taking a Venture Abroad

This case examines how an entrepreneur takes a business abroad. After successfully having started a temporary employment business for specialized laboratory workers in the U.S., Bruce Culver starts a company that pursues the same opportunity first in Britain and then in France. The case describes the difference in the market and institutional environment of these countries. It describes the entrepreneurial process of acquiring resources in a foreign country, and examines the learning process of the start-up company, as it adapts to the new social and economic environments. While the British business develops favorably, even expanding into adjacent market niches, the French business is facing difficulties that relate to personnel problems and the transformation of an acquired company.