Reasons a business might want to grow:

• Entrepreneur wants a greater challenge
• Owners want a higher return on their investment
• Growth, through diversification can help spread risk
• A bigger business is better placed to giht of any economic or competitive threats
• Opportunity to gain economies of scale

Organic Growth - Achieved by increasing a firm's sales of existing products or services.

Mergers - This is where two companies join together to form a new larger business.

Aquisations - This is when a larger business buys control of a smaller business through buying its shares and becoming the majority owner. If the acquisition is not beneficial to the stakeholders of the smaller business it can be described as being ‘Hostile’

Joint venture - This is a formal business arrangement between two or more businesses to work on a project together. A joint venture needs a contract that outlines the responsibilities and goals.

Reasons for undertaking a joint venture:

• Capital of project may be too high for just one business
• Risk is shared between businesses making it less risky for one business
• Enables businesses to share each others strengths which can make a project more successful
• Effective way of gaining access to market or resources in another country

Strategic Alliance - This is similar to a joint venture except that it less a partnership and more companies cooperating together through ways like sharing technology or advertising.

Factors that affect whether or not it is successful:

• An alliance/venture can fail the same way a business does and is not certain it works
• If a agreement is vague on duties some key ones can be missed causing the project to fail
• Conflict over how profits are divided can cause projects to stop until there is an agreement The integrity of both businesses, if one does not hold up their end of the agreement the project can fail