Opportunity exploration, exploitation and entrepreneurial capability development in Ghana

Abstract

This paper explored the antecedents that defined and explained opportunity exploration and exploitation, and shed light on the formation of entrepreneurial capability in emerging markets. The study adopted the quantitative research design, using structured questionnaire to collect data from 498 small-medium enterprises (SMEs). Descriptive statistics was used to ascertain the antecedents of opportunity exploration and exploitation. Partial least squared structured equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to examine the measurement and structural models. The findings demonstrate that opportunity exploration and exploitation are theoretically linked, and combined to form entrepreneurial capability. However, SMEs in emerging markets explore more than they exploit, leading to over-exploitation of existing opportunities and under-exploration of new viable opportunities. The nature and dimensions of firm-level entrepreneurial capability are still nascent and have not been explored from process-oriented perspective. The study investigated how firms in emerging markets build entrepreneurial capability by first exploring and then exploiting, on continuous basis, viable entrepreneurial opportunities.