Opportunity Recognition Process Research Articles

Factors determining entrepreneurial opportunity recognition and the significant role of education and training

Purpose The purpose of this paper was to determine the factors that enable entrepreneurial opportunity recognition and the significant role of education and training in enhancing opportunity recognition. Design/methodology/approach This paper follows a systematic literature review method to answer the research questions. A systematic literature review allows us to determine the work carried out to date, how it was done, assess literature and report all relevant research. The authors have used the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic and Meta-Analysis procedure. Findings The findings of this study showed that prior knowledge, social networks, external environment, entrepreneurial alertness, creativity, self-efficacy and entrepreneurial passion are the main factors that play a role in the opportunity recognition process. The authors were also able to establish the importance of education and training in enhancing opportunity recognition. Experiential learning is at the forefront of education methods used to improve prior knowledge and experience that directly impact the ability to recognize entrepreneurial opportunities. Practical implications The paper provides human resource development practitioners and entrepreneurship educators with factors that determine entrepreneurial opportunity recognition. It pinpoints the factors that can be exploited in enhancing employees and novice entrepreneurs’ ability to recognize viable entrepreneurial opportunities. Originality/value Opportunity recognition is recognized as the first step in the entrepreneurship process. Therefore, it is crucial for entrepreneurs to have the ability to recognize opportunities that are viable. Understanding the factors that contribute to a successful opportunity recognition is important. In addition, the role of education and training in opportunity recognition and enhancing entrepreneurial opportunity recognition cannot be overlooked.

Cleaning the window of opportunity: Towards a typology of sustainability entrepreneurs

Essential for targeting the urgent societal challenges of today and tomorrow, entrepreneurial activity requires deeper, more thorough information on sustainability entrepreneurs. Through an opportunity recognition process lens, this study contributes to deriving a typology of sustainability entrepreneurs by underscoring their diversity and a variety of factors that can be used to differentiate between them. Analyzing 22 in-depth narrative interviews achieved a framework with dimensions helping derive different types of sustainability entrepreneurs. We use this to point out that sustainability entrepreneurs are not merely a homogeneous group of “do-gooders,” while also discussing factors that may influence the fruition process of sustainability-entrepreneurial endeavors. Along with delivering a basis for future research on the types of sustainability entrepreneurs, our results question current work by not only showing various forms of sustainability entrepreneurial activity, but also how the diversity of sustainability entrepreneurs can lead to a broader understanding of sustainability orientation and entrepreneurship.

Investigating mechanical engineering students’ approaches to opportunity recognition process

The process of opportunity recognition is pivotal to engineering design, fostering technological innovation and entrepreneurship. Although there are multiple studies conducted in the area of opportunity recognition studying the behaviors of entrepreneurs, examining engineering students’ approaches have been underexplored. There is a lack of research in regards to opportunity recognition processes among engineering students, particularly in the context of design education. The presented study addresses this gap by qualitatively examining approaches to opportunity recognition among mechanical engineering students enrolled in an engineering design course. Using a sample of 23 mechanical engineering students, the approaches to opportunity recognition were analyzed using students’ responses to open-ended survey questions and student group discussions. From the analysis of the qualitative data, four key themes emerged regarding the improvement of the device and process, user consideration, environmental sustainability, and information and resources accessed by students. The findings provide a deeper understanding that can be used to inform educational practices and further research in the area of opportunity recognition in engineering education settings.

The Emergence of Entrepreneurial Identity among Entrepreneurship Students

Entrepreneurial identity shapes thoughts and actions of entrepreneurs during the process of opportunity recognition and new-venture creation. Entrepreneurship education is expected to facilitate the emergence of entrepreneurial identity among students. In our research we examine the nature, emergence, and evolution of an entrepreneurial identity among students and graduates of an entrepreneurship Bachelor of Commerce program in Toronto, Canada. After interviewing more than 49 students and alumni, we used both identity and social identity theories to conclude that entrepreneurial identity is a self-perceived identity that individuals acquire after they reject aspects of their current roles in order to create new ones. Entrepreneurship education helps students discover their entrepreneurial identity to a various degree. Once they discover their entrepreneurial identity, students are empowered, specifically rebellious ones that are considered “unfitting” with respect to their institutional roles.

The effect of international opportunity recognition processes on problem-solving competence: how does past negative entrepreneurial experience matter?

Research background: Little research addresses how identifying an opportunity in the international market, whether through active search or serendipitous discovery, may have implications for the subsequent gestation behaviors. An emerging body of research suggests addressing this deficiency by focusing on the cognitive and experience-based factors that international entrepreneurs use to develop an opportunity in the foreign market once identified. Purpose of the article: The aim of this study is to explore the role of active and serendipitous international opportunity recognition (IOR) in entrepreneurs? problem-solving skills (problem-solving speed and creativity), as well as the moderating effect of past negative entrepreneurial experience (PNE) on such relationships. Methods: This study used the survey data collection method through an online self-administered questionnaire. Partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) method was used to analyze the results over a sample of Spanish international entrepreneurs. Findings & value added: The results show that entrepreneurs that have identified an international opportunity (IO) actively are better equipped to solve problems speedily than those that have discovered an IO serendipitously. In contrast, entrepreneurs who identified an IO serendipitously are better equipped to solve problems creatively. Furthermore, the impact of active search on problem-solving speed is greater for entrepreneurs without PNE, and the impact of active search on problem-solving creativity is greater for entrepreneurs with PNE. Also, it is found that PNE does not moderate serendipitous IOR relationship with problem-solving competence. These findings are relevant as they indicate that the IOR processes have implications for the subsequent gestation behaviors. Thus, the value added of this study is the combination of cognitive and experience-based factors of the international entrepreneur to enrich the link between IOR processes and IO development. These are two intertwined and interdependent processes, which, however, have been scarcely studied as a whole. The results of this research help international entrepreneurs to understand how and why the way they recognized an IO and having or not PNE influence their problem-solving skills during the IO development phase.

중소벤처기업 창업자의 사회적 자본이 창업성과에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구: 초기창업자 행동을 매개로

Purpose This study is to analyze the effect of entrepreneur’s social capital, which accumulates through entrepreneur’s external network, trust and shared vision among members of the start-up team on entrepreneurial intention and opportunity recognition at the nascent entrepreneurship stage. Methods For empirical analysis, successful entrepreneurs of smaller ventures were surveyed online A total of 253 samples were obtained and IBM AMOS 20 was used for statistical testing. Results First, external bridging social capital and internal bonding social capital directly influence nascent entrepreneurship, Second, nascent entrepreneur''s behaviors directly influences start-up performance, and it is to say that nascent entrepreneur''s behaviors, which is a process of entrepreneurial intention and opportunity recognition, influences start-up performance. Third, external bridging and internal bonding social capital have a significant impact on start-up performance mediated by nascent entrepreneur''s behaviors. Fourth, analysis of indirect effect of social capital revealed that external bridging social capital not only influences entrepreneurial intention and opportunity recognition but also the start-up performance significantly. Conclusion This study has provided theoretical grounds that support that preliminary or potential entrepreneurs can achieve successful entrepreneurship by recognizing the importance of social capital and overcoming the initial challenges of start-up such as lack of resources and anxiety about failure through strategic allocation of social capital.

The Impact of Scenarios on the Performance of Entrepreneurial Imaginativeness: Evidence From an Experiment.

With the advent of the era of artificial intelligence, “scenario” frequently appears in new product development and has gradually become an effective tool for analyzing user needs. However, the reasons for this phenomenon have not been explored in depth. New product development is a creative activity that requires product designers to imagine how people will live in the near future. So, we speculated that a familiar scenario that matches designers’ background (including knowledge, expertise, and experience) can spark their entrepreneurial imaginativeness by empathic simulation and conducted an experiment to research the impact of scenarios on the performance of entrepreneurial imaginativeness. Results of this study confirmed that a familiar scenario did indeed inspire entrepreneurial imaginativeness more than an unfamiliar scenario, especially for high entrepreneurial imaginativeness. This study provided a new respective for understanding the relationship between the empathy process and entrepreneurial opportunity recognition and evaluation processes and had practical implications for entrepreneurial practice, especially those that make human life better based on new digital technologies. Finally, we gave some suggestions on enhancing individuals’ entrepreneurial imaginativeness through different familiar scenarios and improving the team performance on creative tasks.

The Feasibility Evaluation Model of Industrial Robot Entrepreneurship Based on Data Collection

Artificial intelligence and robots are changing the economic and entrepreneurship environment in the industrial revolution. Artificial intelligence and robotics have become prevalent in modern economic, professional, social, and daily lives. As a function of its ability to update and develop business processes and innovative ideas, services, and products and resolve difficult tasks to achieve new, entrepreneurship has experienced massive development. Significant changes are occurring in entrepreneurship and economic growth due to artificial intelligence. Therefore, this paper aims to understand the effect and components of data entrepreneurship overall with the help of an artificial intelligence-based feasibility evaluation model (AI-FEM). Robot, edge and physical resource layers are described in depth in this document. We first deploy an edge node near the data sources to combine multiple devices’ interfaces and function as a raw data filter. Then it provides opportunity recognition, opportunity development, and opportunity implementation processes are part of the framework’s processes described in this paper. This paper aims to develop a basic framework for evaluating AI’s potential implications for the interaction between entrepreneurship and economic growth. The economic growth of industrial robots reduces basic labor costs. However, it increases hourly compensation, suggesting that the productivity-enhancing advantage of industrial robots equals the wage-increasing influence. The results show that the system is feasible and performs better in real-time and network transmission than in an AI-based industry scenario. The experimental results of AI-FEM show the high-performance ratio of 95.5%, productivity ratio of 96.3%, reliability ratio of 93.4%, the employment rate of 92.6%, an efficiency ratio of 93.6%, industrial management ratio of 90.3%, and cost-effectiveness ratio of 20.3% compared to other methods.

How creative destruction functions in corporate entrepreneurial process: an empirical investigation of Schumpeterian concept in engineering firm settings in Pakistan

Schumpeter's idea of creative destruction (CD) explains innovation functions in organisations. This paper investigates the CD concept in engineering firms by explaining how technical opportunity (TO) transforms into corporate entrepreneurship (CE) actions once opportunities have a market orientation (MO). A survey was conducted using a structured questionnaire with 132 managers of engineering firms in Pakistan. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) using Partial Least Square (PLS) approach has been used to analyse the data. Results reveal that MO and TO exerts a positive influence on CE. MO is the reason for the emergence of TO, which corporate entrepreneurs in engineering firms exploit. CD intensifies the impact of MO on TO significantly. Opportunity recognition in engineering firms is distinguished and bounded by MO and technical viability. Engineering firms need to identify gaps in the market through naturally occurring obsolescence of products and services (CD) to create TO with appropriate MO. This study has revived a classical debate over opportunity recognition by incorporating external factors to propose the CE model. The Schumpeterian opportunity recognition process and CD have been examined for engineering firms.

Foreign market knowledge, international opportunity recognition, and the performance of export‐manufacturing firms

AbstractAccumulating foreign market knowledge is critically essential for international entrepreneurs operating in the export‐manufacturing industry to recognise new international opportunities. Foreign market knowledge positively improves the international opportunity recognition process to achieve superior performance of export‐manufacturing firms. Foreign institutional knowledge is the most important among three types of foreign market knowledge that international entrepreneurs should leverage to recognise new opportunities. International entrepreneurs must seek foreign market knowledge from the breadth of various sources in their quest for successful international performance.

A framework for the opportunity recognition process in UK entrepreneurial universities

This study aims to develop an empirical framework for the opportunity recognition process in UK entrepreneurial universities. Initially, a conceptual framework was developed resulting from reviewing the literature relating to the factors that determine the opportunity recognition process as well as the factors that differentiate entrepreneurial universities. The framework was also affected by the principles of Resource-Based Theory (RBT), which underpins the present study. A multiple case study approach was adopted to validate the above-mentioned framework. Data was collected by using three main methods: website content, documented secondary data, and twenty-five semi-structured in-depth interviews with enterprise/entrepreneurship centres directors and academic deans (each lasted between 41 and 109 min). Two techniques were used to analyse the data: Template Analysis (TA) and Framework Analysis. The findings show that in addition to the identification of the factors that determine the opportunity recognition process, it is vital to consider the context when recognizing entrepreneurial opportunities, and it is important to find an optimal mixture of resources/capabilities to guarantee effectiveness in the process of entrepreneurial opportunity recognition.

Seeing the World from an Outsider’s Perspective: Opportunity Recognition by Immigrant Entrepreneurs

This study contributes to the opportunity recognition literature by an inductive content analysis of the entrepreneurial journeys of 52 immigrant entrepreneurs in the Boston area. The theoretical framework derived from our narrative data depicts the opportunity recognition processes of immigrant entrepreneurs and highlights the role of the meso context, embedded in the broader macro institutional context, as a source of external resources, motivators, and opportunity signals. The model also elaborates the role of idiosyncratic internal motivators for immigrant entrepreneurs during their opportunity recognition processes. The study contributes to the entrepreneurship literature by showing that immigrant entrepreneurs, due to their extended exposures to different national contexts, have a comparative mindset, and this mindset plays a unique role in shaping their alertness to entrepreneurial opportunities in their new contexts.

Social entrepreneurs' opportunity recognition in response to wicked problems: the role of identity

Wicked problems such as persistent poverty, climate change and biodiversity loss are some of the greatest challenges that humankind faces, because they span national boundaries, are prone to contestation and are highly complex. Social entrepreneurs can address these problems and fuel change, but to do so, they need to recognize entrepreneurial opportunities. The relationship between the recognition of a problem and the recognition of a related opportunity has been conceptualised as a linear one, which does not do justice to the complexity of the process. Therefore, we investigate the process whereby problem recognition is transformed into opportunity recognition. We use an identity-based perspective to uncover how social entrepreneurs recognize opportunities in relation to wicked problems. We use an abductive, qualitative approach, and analyse interviews with 26 social entrepreneurs. Our findings show that the opportunity recognition process for wicked problems consists of four stages: (1) the recognition of a wicked problem, (2) the reinforcement of a prosocial identity, (3) the translation of a wicked to a specific problem, and, (4) the connection of the specific problem to an identity. We contribute to the entrepreneurship literature by unpacking the opportunity recognition process of social entrepreneurs in relation to wicked problems.

Informal Entrepreneurship: An Integrative Literature Review

Informal entrepreneurship (IE) represents the process of opportunity recognition and exploitation in the informal economy, i.e. outside of formal institutional boundaries (laws, regulations), yet within informal institutional boundaries (norms, beliefs). This includes entrepreneurial activities that, while not complying with formal laws and regulations, remain legitimate for many entrepreneur’s stakeholders, including customers, suppliers, and employees. In this paper we review the stream of literature on IE, drawing on the multilevel causal mechanism framework. We employ a systematic and integrative literature review to synthesize the existing literature, identifying situational, action-formation, and transformational causal mechanism on three different levels (micro, meso, macro) for the puzzling phenomenon of IE. The multilevel mechanism framework generates new perspectives on IE. To advance theory in this field further, we propose some directions for future research on IE.

Interdisciplinary Team-Based Learning: An Integrated Opportunity Recognition and Evaluation Model for Teaching Business, Engineering and Design Students

This paper describes a pedagogical framework and a set of team-based learning (TBL) activities which can be applied to an interdisciplinary course comprised of a mix of engineering, design, and business students. The goal of the team-based learning (TBL) activities is to help students to appreciate both the benefits and the challenges of working in interdisciplinary teams. To enhance their interdisciplinary collaboration skills, students engage in a series of knowledge sharing and knowledge integration activities, based on the Jigsaw technique, a team-based learning methodology. These activities enable the students to recognize and reconcile their disciplinary differences and biases, which arise because of the cognitive diversity of the team. Students are assigned to interdisciplinary teams to identify and prototype an entrepreneurial opportunity. By the end of these activities, students are able to incorporate the perspectives of all three disciplines to develop an integrated team mental model (TMM) of the opportunity recognition and opportunity evaluation process.

Do we understand each other? Toward a simulated empathy theory for entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurs often face the daunting task of predicting consumer demand before it exists—what consumers will want if and when the entrepreneur might make it available to them. Such alertness and judgment require an entrepreneur's vicarious imagination—the supposition of what a value experience would be like for another—such as empathy. Prevailing theories of empathy, however, are ill-suited for entrepreneurship theory as they are defined as and focused on an emotion-matching process. We propose that empathy be understood instead as a vicarious mental simulation of another's experience that, when accurate, produces similar emotions but also similar experiential knowledge. According to our ‘simulated empathy theory,’ empathy is a rational imagination process, intentional and knowledge-based. We connect this empathy process to contemporary entrepreneurship theory, namely opportunity recognition and evaluation processes. We also revise the concept of empathic accuracy accordingly, and derive therefrom some practical implications regarding how entrepreneurs can increase their empathic accuracy and, thereby, their chances of success.

Role of Factors in New Venture Creation, a Case of Economic Survival during COVID-19

Pandemic driven lockdowns slow down the economic flow by reducing trade and business and force entities for mass layoffs causing economic uncertainty. Individuals look for alternative sources of income through self employment to overcome economic uncertainty. Exploring this domain of “Venture Creation Process”, Researchers have explored the process of Opportunity recognition and Business venturing decisions during normal times and found factors influencing the decision process but does the process and factors play similar roles during a crisis-driven need based scenario. We have explored the role of factors in the Venture creation decision process during the COVID-19 pandemic and measured the impact of “Awareness of Demand”, “Experience of being a buyer”, “Opportunity recognition”, “Economic Uncertainty” and “Entrepreneurial Intent” on Venture creation decision. Though the pandemic has caused severe loss to the economy and employment but also created demand for new products. We found that the influence of factors changes with environmental dynamics and with the scope of the Business. The results give a new dimension to the research domain and will help researchers in understanding the business venturing decision process.

Opportunity Recognition: Conversational Foundations and Pathways Ahead

Abstract This paper provides an overview of the ever-increasing literature on opportunity recognition, with a focus on its antecedents and determinants. With a two-step research approach, a bibliometric analysis and a systematic literature review, we structure the current research in this field. By using bibliometric techniques, we analyzed 161 publications and, consequently, clustered the 30 most influential references. Apart from economic theories and the role of opportunity recognition in entrepreneurship, a strong research focus is on antecedents of opportunity recognition. Therefore, in our subsequent literature review, we focus on determinants which influence opportunity recognition. We find that the opportunity recognition process is influenced by various personal, organizational and environmental factors. We conclude with a research outlook for future research opportunities on opportunity recognition.

Immigrant entrepreneurship and strategy: a systematic literature review

This paper examines developments in the research on immigrant entrepreneurship and strategy based on a systematic literature review of the Web of Science and Scopus databases. This aims to recognise the issues around strategy approached by academic research on immigrant entrepreneurship and furthermore identify the strategies applied by immigrant entrepreneurs in the creation, survival, and growth of their businesses. The results demonstrate how seven themes span the core of the 67 selected studies: i) Opportunity recognition and business creation processes, ii) Adaptation and survival strategies, iii) Ethnicity influences on immigrant entrepreneur strategies, iv) Multicultural and breaking-out strategies, v) Internationalisation strategies and transnational business, vi) Differences between immigrants and non-immigrants as entrepreneurs, and vii) Governmental and support organisation policies. Our key findings reveal that the competitive advantage of immigrant entrepreneurs derives from their ability, firstly, to gain benefits from their communities (the ethnic enclave strategy), before then integrating with the mainstream market in their host country (break-out strategy) and, finally, expanding to other countries, mainly through transnational business dealings (internationalisation strategies).

The performance of export manufacturing firms: roles of international entrepreneurial capability and international opportunity recognition

PurposeThe international entrepreneurial capability has achieved its legitimacy in international business literature. Leveraging capabilities to recognise opportunities is considered a pivotal strategy to achieve success. Drawing on the entrepreneurship literature and opportunity perspective, this study aims to investigate the role of international entrepreneurial capability in enhancing the international opportunity recognition (IOR) process and the performance of export manufacturing firms.Design/methodology/approachStructural equation modelling has been used to test the hypothesised relationship on 388 export manufacturing entrepreneurial firms operating in the apparel industry of Bangladesh.FindingsThe results signify that three international entrepreneurial capabilities, namely, international networking, learning and marketing capability, positively enhance the IOR process of export manufacturing firms. The IOR process positively mediates the relationships between these international entrepreneurial capabilities and firm performance.Originality/valueMerely having the international entrepreneurial capability is not sufficient to escalate the firm performance. It must be amplified by various strategic actions such as the IOR process. Entrepreneurs need to capitalise on the international entrepreneurial capability to leverage the IOR process and generate non-financial performance success. Entrepreneurial firms that focus more on stimulating non-financial performance can secure better financial performance.