The Relationship between Slack Resources, Resource Bricolage, and Entrepreneurial Opportunity Identification—Based on Resource Opportunity Perspective

Abstract

There are a lot of slack resources in a company. It is vitally important for an enterprise to use slack resources to identify entrepreneurial opportunities to establish company sustainable development. On the basis of the resource orchestration theory and from resource-opportunity perspective, this paper constructs a framework of slack resources and entrepreneurial opportunity identification, exploring the mediating of resource bricolage, the moderating of network ties, and the moderated mediation of network ties. In our analyses, we used data from companies in eastern China, and statistical hypotheses were validated through a structural equation model with data using the statistical software Amos version 20, SPSS version 22. The research results show that: (1) Absorbed slack resources and unabsorbed slack resources have a positive impact on entrepreneurial opportunity identification. (2) Slack resources indirectly affect the opportunity identification through the mediating role of resource bricolage. Among them, resource bricolage has a fully mediating role between absorbed slack resources and entrepreneurial opportunity identification, and it has a partial mediating role between unabsorbed slack resources and entrepreneurial opportunity identification. (3) Business ties positively moderate the relationship between two types of slack resources and entrepreneurial opportunity identification, and business ties moderate the mediation effect of resource bricolage. The resource-opportunity perspective answers how decisions are made, and the entire model process answers how to create sustainable value (entrepreneurship opportunities). The study guides managers on how to integrate and use external and internal resources, coordinate resource elements, and identify profitable business opportunities.