Exploit Business Opportunities Research Articles

Exploring the Impact of Sustainable Entrepreneurial Role Models on Students’ Opportunity Recognition for Sustainable Development in Sustainable Entrepreneurship Education

The transformation toward a sustainable economy is considered one of the most effective measures to accelerate the achievement of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. Sustainable entrepreneurs contribute to this transformation by identifying and exploiting business opportunities based on sustainability challenges such as biodiversity loss. Recognizing a business opportunity to achieve sustainable development characterizes the beginning of the sustainable entrepreneurial process. Sustainable entrepreneurship education (SEE) aims to foster skills, knowledge, and attitudes to accomplish tasks within this complex process. Role models are a common pedagogical instrument in educational settings, such as SEE at higher education institutions, where sustainable entrepreneurs are integrated into the curriculum to enhance learning outcomes. Given the limited research on SEE for secondary education, an exploratory study is conducted to investigate the effects of sustainable entrepreneurial role models on opportunity recognition for sustainable development. A total of 136 secondary school students participated in a program that guided them through the first steps of the sustainable entrepreneurial process. A total of 68 students were non-randomly assigned to sustainable entrepreneurial role models, providing support and feedback. During the program, groups of 3–5 students generated opportunity ideas (n = 35) for sustainable development. The quality of the opportunity ideas is explored by a qualitative content analysis. The obtained data is further analyzed for statistical group differences. The findings indicate the potential positive effects of sustainable entrepreneurial role models on idea generation for sustainable development. The results can advise educators and researchers on the design and investigation of SEE for secondary education.

Entrepreneurship Mentoring Programme and Market Performance: Evidence from SIDO Supported Micro and Small Enterprises in Arusha, Tanzania

The overall market performance of Micro and Small Enterprises in Tanzania has been observed to be poor because entrepreneurs are unable to compete, identify opportunity, identify the needs of customers and produce what is needed and failure to retain and satisfy their customers. As a result, the graduating rate of micro to small, medium and large enterprises in Tanzania is absolutely very low. This high failure rate is mainly caused by lack competent entrepreneurs who can compete, explore market environment, identify and exploit business opportunities. The purpose of this study was to establish the association between entrepreneurship mentoring programme and Small Industrial Development Organization (SIDO) supported Micro Small Enterprises’ (MSEs) market performance in Arusha Municipality. The study used cross-sectional research design. Data were collected using survey questionnaire on 230 sampled Small Industrial Development Organization (SIDO) supported MSEs and analysed by using Structural equation model (SEM). The results revealed that there was positive relationship between entrepreneurship mentoring programme and SIDO supported MSEs market performance. The study contributes in providing empirical evidence to body of knowledge and provides an insight to policy makers on the role of entrepreneurship mentoring programme in supporting or facilitating performance of MSEs in the market. The study concluded that overall entrepreneurship mentoring programme has strong positive association with MSEs market performance. The study recommended that SIDO and other institutions offering entrepreneurship training programmes to establish incubation Centres that will incubate MSEs after graduating from entrepreneurship trainings so that they can be well mentored and monitored.

Marketing agility in underdog entrepreneurship: A qualitative assessment in post-conflict Sub-Saharan African context

Extant entrepreneurship literature lacks specific research on how underdog entrepreneurs survive and strive in post-conflict environments. This study seeks to explore the role of marketing agility as an essential capability to survive and exploit business opportunities in post-conflict Sub-Saharan Africa, where institutional voids and volatility coexist. The empirical research design comprises of multiple case studies of sixteen underdog (war-affected) entrepreneurs in Liberia and Sierra Leon; both countries which went through civil war and violent internal strife in recent past. The study findings reveal that marketing agility and its dimensions, i.e., robustness, responsiveness, and proactiveness, are critical for underdog entrepreneur’s business’s survival. Finally, the findings also show that institutional context, volatility, and individual experiences of entrepreneurs tend to influence the manifestation of this marketing agility.

Read Opportunities for Building Business Performance in West Java

The aim of this research is to investigate the impact of business opportunities on the business performance of MSME business actors in West Java after the pandemic. The sample used was 123 MSMEs in West Java. This research uses PLS for data analysis. The research results show that business opportunities can improve business performance in West Java. The results of this research have important implications because they show that understanding and exploiting business opportunities can make a positive contribution to the performance of MSMEs in West Java after the pandemic. This provides valuable insight for MSME players and related stakeholders in designing strategies and policies that support regional economic growth through developing a competitive MSME sector. These findings can be an important basis in supporting the development of MSMEs and regional economic recovery, underscoring the importance of opportunity-based strategies in facing economic and environmental changes.

Factors of Women Entrepreneurship in Egypt: A Qualitative Perspective

Extensive studies related to women’s entrepreneurial motivation are available in the western context, however, only a few studies are found focused on factors that motivate Egyptian women to engage in entrepreneurial activities. The study explores in-depth the motivations behind female entrepreneurs’ efforts to establish business ventures in Egypt. It analyses the influence of macrosocial realities and cultural values on the motivation for entrepreneurship. The finding demonstrates how post materialism factors motivate Egyptian women to embrace entrepreneurial activity as a way to maintaining “personal freedom”. The results demonstrate the impact of the Arab patriarchal culture on shaping the Egyptian women motivation. The qualitative research approach is adopted in this study to explore the entrepreneurial motivations of Egyptian women entrepreneurs. Through purposeful sampling, 20 women entrepreneurs were selected from five Egyptian governorates to administer a semi structured interview for the collection of primary data. The findings indicated that the motivation of Egyptian women entrepreneurs cover a variety of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. Intrinsic motivations include maintaining personal freedom, satisfying their creative impulses, utilizing their knowledge derived from education training courses and work experiences, exploiting business opportunities, achieving a sense of self -actualization, improving social motivation. On the other hand, extrinsic factors include the inability to find a suitable job, death or illness of a family member, the need to supplement the family income, unfavorable job routine. The research on female entrepreneurs in the context of Egypt is essential as this study responded to calls for a thorough understanding of women’s entrepreneurial motivations. By studying these factors, the study would be able to show that motivations are unique and differentiate from other contexts.

Characteristics of business models for innovation clusters in decarbonation projects

Roughly 97 % of the European Union (EU)’s building stock is not considered energy efficient, and 75 to 85 % of it will still be in use in 2050. Residential buildings account for around two thirds of final energy consumption in European buildings. The rate at which new buildings either replace the old stock, or expand the total stock, is about 1 % per year. Similarly, the current renovation rate of existing buildings in the EU is about 1–2 % of the building stock renovated each year.The transformation of today’s electric power sector to a more sustainable energy production based on renewable energies will change the structure of the industry. In this transformation towards a smart energy system interaction between sectors and technologies the main stakeholders (energy service providers; utilities) will face new challenges in their traditional way of doing business. Therefore, adapting their business models to remain competitive is seen as an important step.We chose to characterize these business models by content, structure and governance of transactions for creating value by exploiting business opportunities. In the energy sector the following characteristics to the business models for energy supply have been identified.The most predominant archetypes of business models for the energy supply are presented and discussed. Further, we propose to set up (or use existing) innovation clusters, based on these promising BM to ensure that innovative business environments (innovation clusters) will grow that have the potential for upscaling and replication of District Decarbonization Solutions. There are no specific business models for energy supply applied to renovation of districts. Uncertainties in the supportive measures for the application of DER makes it difficult to develop new business models for the utilities.

Influence of Successors’ Entrepreneurial Competencies on Performance in Family-Owned Small and Medium Enterprises in Arusha City, Tanzania

This paper examines attributes of successors’ entrepreneurial competencies such as risk-taking propensity, ability to exploit business opportunities, innovation and commitment in family businesses in Arusha City, Tanzania. A cross-sectional research design was employed using a quantitative survey approach, in which two hundred family business successors provided data for this paper. The data were analysed using the Hierarchical Regression Model to assess the influence of successors’ entrepreneurial competencies on the performance of family-owned SMEs. The findings indicate that successors’ risktaking propensity and the ability to exploit business opportunities influence the performance of family-owned SMEs. The paper concludes that familyowned SMEs managed by successors who can take calculated risks and are also able to exploit business opportunities are in a good position to realize better performance in terms of net profit. It is recommended that family business founders should build their successors’ entrepreneurial competencies.

Moderating effect of social capital on the dynamics between entrepreneurial orientation and internationalization of Spanish family owned businesses

AbstractThis paper addresses an important knowledge gap regarding the internationalization of family businesses. To understand the specific factors that influence the internationalization of these firms, this paper investigates the role and articulation of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and family social capital (FSC) on internationalization performance. Our findings reveal that the more entrepreneurial the family business, the higher the likelihood of identifying and exploiting business opportunities in foreign markets. The moderating effect that FSC can have on the dynamics between EO and internationalization indicates that this relational family specific asset facilitates organizational stability and performance enhancement.

The Role of Opportunity Exploration, Exploitation and Corporate Social Responsibilities on Sustainable Manufacturing Business Performance in Mekong River Delta

A given business or market environment and corporate responsibilities always offers opportunities that have a direct impact on the sustainable business performance. Several scholars have researched on how to take advantage of these opportunities in creating sustainable business performance. This study analyzes determinants of the exploration, business opportunity exploitation, corporate social responsibilities (CSR) and sustainable business performance of manufacturing industry based in the Mekong River Delta, Vietnam. The data was collected by questionnaires. This study applying the Structural Equation Model (SEM) results, the author finds strong evidence of opportunity exploration, opportunity exploitation and CSR have positive impact with sustainable business performance. This study provides the guidelines to the regulators while developing the policies related to the opportunity exploration, and CSR that enhance the sustainable business performance.

The entrepreneurial orientation of exhibitors and vendors at food festivals

ABSTRACT Celebrating food has become an increasingly visible part of local and regional calendars worldwide. The rise of food festivals represents this trend. Food festivals have gained momentum for various entrepreneurs and producers, including farmers, fishermen, food manufacturers, food accessory producers, chefs, and restaurateurs. Much research is available on visitors (consumers) at food festivals, but knowledge about producers/vendors is almost absent. This study aims to bridge this research gap by reviewing and analyzing food producers’ entrepreneurial intentions to participate in food festivals and the role and meaning of festival participation in their professional and individual development. The study is inspired by ideas about artisan entrepreneurship. It draws empirically on primary data from 58 in-depth interviews among vendors at three food festivals organized in Poland in the summer of 2020. The results show that food festivals offer creative ways to discover and exploit business opportunities where lifestyle and altruistic values can feasibly coexist with business goals. However, the study also reveals that some food producers/vendors are reluctant to change their product or marketing approaches or to redirect their entrepreneurial orientations based on the feedback received at the festivals and on the dilemmas they face. This study elaborates on the nature of such challenges and proposes policy recommendations to overcome them.

Opportunity Exploitation in Times of the COVID-19 Pandemic – The Importance of Dynamic Capabilities and the Entrepreneur’s Characteristics

Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to answer the question of how entrepreneurs can take advantage of and exploit the conditions and opportunities resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Methodology: In the paper, we apply the conceptual review method in order to review extant knowledge, identifying important research gaps, and propose a conceptual framework for the research. Findings: We propose a conceptual framework of the recognition and exploitation of business opportunities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The framework assumes the influence of specific dynamic capabilities (strategic foresight – at the strategic level and innovation, self-structured and relational capabilities – at the operational level) and the entrepreneur’s key characteristics (being intuitive, having the ability to learn – especially in the field of crisis management, being innovative, having leadership competencies and having the ability to use advanced digital technologies) on the identification, creation and exploitation of opportunities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Research limitations: The main limitation results from the dynamism of the pandemic situation. Therefore, our results need further empirical verification. Practical implications: The model provides managerial implications for entrepreneurs responsible for decisions and actions during the pandemic crisis. We underline the importance of the development of entrepreneurs’ own competencies as well as the development of the competencies of their employees in the context of crisis management. We especially suggest that managers develop leadership competencies which relate to the competence of how to delegate powers and build empowerment in order to take advantage of the opportunities resulting from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. To exploit opportunities effectively, they should be recognized early, and therefore entrepreneurs should consider the benefits of using intuition in this area. Value: The special value of the paper can be seen in the context of the analysis. There is a shortage of studies identifying the impact of dynamic capabilities and the entrepreneur’s characteristics on the exploitation of opportunities during the specific situation of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Motivational foundations of identifying and exploiting entrepreneurial opportunities

PurposeMotivation can serve as the engine that turns intention into action, and, as such, is indispensable in the early phase of the entrepreneurial process, where opportunity recognition and exploitation are key. However, research in this area has so far shed a selective spotlight on specific facets of entrepreneurial motivation, whereas the consideration of basic motives has been widely neglected. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to illuminate the basic motivational foundations of one core aspect of entrepreneurial behavior, namely opportunity recognition.Design/methodology/approachThe study examined how motivation influences the process of recognizing and exploiting entrepreneurial opportunities in a sample of 312 managing directors and managing partners of small and medium-sized enterprises. Opportunity recognition and exploitation were assessed by two different measures: one evaluating the objective number of recognized and realized business opportunities, the other assessing the perceived proficiency in identifying and exploiting entrepreneurial opportunities. Implicit and explicit facets of basic motivation were measured using a comprehensive assessment of human needs.FindingsFindings show that entrepreneurs' achievement motive is an important driver in both the identification and exploitation of opportunity. The power motive affects the perceived ability to exploit business opportunities. Interestingly, the explicit affiliation motive showed an inhibitory effect on the perceived ability of opportunity identification, whereas implicit affiliation motive is affecting the number of recognized and realized business opportunities positively.Originality/valueThis research clearly highlights the preeminence of basic motivational factors in explaining individual early-stage entrepreneurial behavior, making them a prime target for training interventions.

Factors affecting international construction joint ventures: a systematic literature review

International construction joint ventures (ICJVs) have become an important way of exploiting business opportunities for construction companies worldwide. Yet, several barriers and risk factors contribute to their failure. This study aims to identify the barrier and risk factors affecting ICJVs through the lens of a systematic review methodology. Findings from 43 peer-reviewed articles showed an increasing publication trend for the past three decades (1990–2020). The bulk of the studies were conducted in Asia and Europe, particularly China and the UK, respectively. Overall, 37 barrier factors were identified, and these fall into six categories, namely, inter-organizational differences, lack of expertise and confidence, lack of effective planning and strategies, lack of knowledge of ICJV’s fundamentals, conflicts, and management difficulties. Next, 53 risk factors were identified and grouped into six, namely, policy and political risks, legal risks, financial risks, management risks, project and technical risks, and market risks. More importantly, knowledge gaps in existing studies are highlighted and future research directions are then proposed. The list of failure factors creates a valuable frame of reference for researchers and practitioners to develop more reliable, comprehensive, and proactive management strategies for ICJVs.

Home Alone: The Effect of Telecommuting on Risk-Taking

We investigate how telecommuting affects risk-taking behavior. Most telecommuters — e.g., (mid-level) managers — perform non-repetitive tasks that require decision-making under risk and uncertainty. We conduct an experiment where one half of our participants are instructed to work on a risk-taking task in the laboratory and the other half to work on the same task at home. We predict and find that telecommuters are more likely to make decisions based on their personal (“natural”) risk preferences compared to individuals working in the office. Because most individuals can be classified as risk-averse, we show that employees are willing to take less risk when making a management decision from home rather than in the office. Our results sensitize for potential dysfunctional effects related to telecommuting, as especially risk-averse decision-makers might take too little risk to exploit business opportunities. Moreover, we suggest highlighting consequences for others as an effective de-biasing measure to manage telecommuters’ risk-taking behavior.

How Do Foreign Entrepreneurs’ Network Structures Influence Venture Performance in an Emerging Market

It has been challenging for entrepreneurs to exploit business opportunities outside of the native country borders and establish a business venture. From the social network perspective, we examine how and to what extent foreign entrepreneurs’– the individuals who pursue and exploit business opportunities across international markets – network structural holes do influence the business venture performance. Using survey data from 195 foreign entrepreneurs in China, we found that foreign entrepreneurs’ social network structural holes in and outside the host country positively influence business venture performance. We explored a mechanism of opportunity recognition that mediates the relationships between network structural holes and venture performance. Also, social network diversity acts as a critical boundary condition that amplifies the effect of network structural holes on business venture performance. This study contributes to international entrepreneurship research and provides several implications for business ventures that embark on operating in emerging economies.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION AND BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY EXPLOITATION: POSITIVE EMOTION AS MEDIATOR

Entrepreneurship education can facilitate students’ competency development and enhance their self-employment potential. Students’ involvement in entrepreneurship is influenced by their emotions, especially in the early stages of business start-ups. Without exploiting potential business opportunities, entrepreneurship will not occur. This study aims to determine positive emotion effects on the relationship between entrepreneurship education and business opportunity exploitation. The study’s sample comprise of 152 final year university students. A questionnaire-based survey was the main instrument employed and the hypotheses developed were tested using Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling. The findings show that the students’ action to exploit opportunities is significant, and is affected by the exposure to entrepreneurial learning and anticipated effect of positive emotion on entrepreneurship. This finding confirms that anticipated positive emotions are important throughout the entrepreneurial process and form a motivating factor to engage in entrepreneurial activities. Furthermore, the result shows that positive emotions partially mediate the relationship between entrepreneurship education and opportunity exploitation. This study is important for students to experience a paradigm shift towards entrepreneurship and to encourage them to select entrepreneurship as a career option. Future studies could explore the effect of anticipated negative emotions among tertiary education students, and potential entrepreneurs.

Harnessing Supply Chain Knowledge for Mitigating the Negative Effects of Bricolage

Bricolage is a term used to illustrate the practice in which small firms tap scant available resources to exploit business opportunities and to facilitate innovation. We focus on decreasing returns from excessive bricolage and, more importantly, highlight an important role played by supply chain knowledge in mitigating decreasing returns from bricolage. The role played by supply chain knowledge in reducing the negative effects of excessive bricolage is not explored yet. This study, in the context of an emerging economy, seeks to isolate the linear and quadratic effects of bricolage on firm performance and examines the moderating influence of supply chain knowledge on the bricolage-to-firm performance relationship. To test the proposed relationships, data from large-scale manufacturing firms in north-west India were used. The final sample size of 106 firms was used for testing the relationships using stepwise OLS analysis. The results revealed that at lower levels of supply chain knowledge, bricolage had an inverted-U relationship with firm performance. In other words, supply chain knowledge mitigates the negative effects of bricolage on performance. However, it did not strengthen the positive effect of bricolage on performance.

Promising Potency: Bio-evangelical Networking in a Korean Stem Cell Enterprise

ABSTRACT The notion of potency has been central in the shaping of the field of stem cell sciences. It not only offers a unique promissory quality to stem cells, but also an interpretive flexibility that can be exploited outside of the scientific research community. One Korea-based stem cell company actively exploits this aspect to amplify its promise of experimental stem cell therapy through an evangelical Christian network. The notion of stem cells' potency is at the crux of their discursive maneuvers that portray stem cells as a ‘gift that God has prepared in our body.' In their entrepreneurial endeavor to exploit business opportunities in evangelical Christian communities, the company strategically exploits the differences between two social worlds (that of the stem cell research community and of evangelical Christians), reflecting a process of ‘bio-evangelical networking'. The presumed religion/science divide, the grammar of miracles, the convention of religious witnessing, as well as faith in this-worldly blessings are actively sought and mobilized as a backdrop for the proliferation of stem cell promises in this religious niche. The notion of potency, once constructed, reformulated, and even fetishized in the scientific community’s effort to consolidate public support, thereby becomes a problem for the stem cell enterprise itself.

External corporate venturing modes as new way to develop dynamic capabilities

Today, firms encounter scarce resources and rapid technology change which render formerly successful business models obsolete. Research shows that some firms perform better than others in continuously discovering, evaluating, and exploiting opportunities in volatile environments and that this is dependent on firm’s dynamic capabilities. Besides obtaining dynamic capabilities through internal R&D activities, firms have open up their innovation process to pursue dynamic capabilities outside their organizational boundaries through external corporate venturing by accessing startup's technological capabilities necessary to innovate. External corporate venturing is a means to develop new distinctive capabilities and businesses by exploring and exploiting business opportunities outside a firm’s existing boundaries. Drawing on the dynamic capability literature, we use a multiple case study approach to examine the contribution of external corporate venturing to firms’ dynamic capabilities. Our results reveal that firms indeed use corporate venturing to identify and exploit startup’s technological knowledge and competencies to increase firm’s dynamic capabilities. But our empirical data also shows that not every firm is fully profiting from all dynamic capability phases as their corporate venturing modes are not linked with each other and cumulative effects are not realized.

Power market equilibrium considering an EV storage aggregator exposed to marginal prices - A bilevel optimization approach

This paper presents an economic model that aims to evaluate -from the regulatory perspective- the behavior of an aggregator capable of exploiting business opportunities of electric vehicles (EV) in the context of a wholesale electricity market. As a key contribution, we investigate the market equilibrium point when only one firm acts as an EV aggregator taking advantage of the management of the storage assets. To do so, a Stackelberg game is stated as a bi-level optimization problem where the maximization of the EV aggregator profit is regarded as the leader’s optimization problem, and the set of hourly economic dispatches and the corresponding locational marginal prices (LMPs) are determined by a benevolent system operator (the follower’s optimization problem). The model was applied in the IEEE RTS test system and the Colombian electricity market. The best solution for the EV aggregator does not require a significant share of the existing storage capacity. However, despite the loss of efficiency observed in the short-term energy market, the oligopolistic solution leads to flattening load curves and, therefore, a better use of the transmission and distribution infrastructure in the long term.