Paper Title
DON’T BURN THE BUSINESS PLAN: THE ROLE OF BUSINESS PLANS FOR START-UPS FROM A SYSTEMIC-EVOLUTIONARY PERSPECTIVE

Abstract
Abstract – 1. Problem Statement For many years, the business plan was considered a mantra for entrepreneurship. To this day, countless templates and guides are provided in many textbooks or practical guidebooks to give advice on the structure, content and dramaturgy of a business plan. For some time now, critical voices have been increasingly heard questioning the business plan as an instrument: It is too time-consuming and cost-intensive, not very flexible and, especially in the start-up context, not meaningful enough (e.g. compared to a business mode canvas). "Burn the business plan!", is the saying of some start-ups after a successful funding round as a sort of ritual.This view is widely held and is an exaggeration. 2. Methods This conceptual paper attempts to look at the topic of the business plan in a systemic-evolutionary light by comparing and integrating different approachesand empirical insights from literature. 3. Results As an instrument of rolling planning, the business plan can basically trigger impulses for cognitive- and psycho-cybernetic processes of entrepreneurial learning at different levels in every life cycle’s phase.Academically, two important systemic-evolutionary approaches are merged (Theory of Entrepreneurial Learning and St. Gallen’s Management Approach). 4. Conclusion The business plan should be seen as a tool that - depending on the situation - is sometimes more and sometimes less useful.The decisive factor is the type of use for entrepreneurial learning processes. The occasions for writing a business plan vary, so that the necessities for documentation in terms of scope, content and density of argumentation result from the situation (i.e. phase or concrete occasion). Keywords - Business Plan, Start-up Finance, System Theory, Evolutionary Learning, Entrepreneurship Education