Opportunity Recognition in Healthcare: An Example- Irish Start-Up Healthcare Set Ups28
Exploratory Scale Background31
CHAPTER-III: METHODOLOGY34
Methods35
Sample35
Data Collection Methods35
Survey Instrument36
CHAPTER-IV: RESULTS, FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION39
The Robinson Subscales39
Exploratory Scales40
Results of the Discriminant Analysis and Regression Procedures42
Discussion43
A Creativity-based Model of Entrepreneurial Opportunity Recognition45
Five Stages of Opportunity Recognition46
Three Modes of Organizational Learning in Entrepreneurial Opportunity Recognition49
Cognitive Learning in the Discovery Phase50
Behavioral Learning in the Formation Phase51
Action Learning across Both Phases of Opportunity Recognition53
The Role of Organizational Learning in Opportunity Recognition54
CHAPTER-V: CONCLUSION AND FUTURE RESEARCH56
Needs for Further Research58
References61
Appendices85
CHAPTER-I: INTRODUCTION
Entrepreneurial activity is an extensive and versatile field of research, making it both highly attractive and complex. For researchers like us, inexperienced but interested in entrepreneurial activity, it is a challenge to understand what entrepreneurial activity is about. In the last two decades the field has attracted increasing attention, resulting in the publication of a large quantity of academic articles. Most of these articles only cover one aspect of entrepreneurial activity or adopt a specific perspective, which complicates gaining deep insight into the phenomenon. Literature reviews are useful for that purpose, but most existing literature reviews on entrepreneurial activity have focused on specific topics such as opportunity identification (Gaglio, 1997) or on a specific perspective on entrepreneurial activity such as research on psychological and sociological traits (e.g. Shapero & Sokol, 1982; Cunningham & Lischeron; 1991; Thornton, 1999).
Even though these publications have contributed to the understanding of these specific topics or perspectives, it is unclear to us how pieces of knowledge on diverse topics and perspectives are related, and how these pieces make up the puzzle of entrepreneurial activity. Therefore we feel that these publications do not provide us with sufficient information for our inquiry. Consequently a need exists for a literature review that relates publications on entrepreneurial activity, thus increasing our understanding of the field.
The domain of the entrepreneurial activity field is defined as the recognition and pursuit of opportunities, and opportunity recognition is considered to be a key element in the entrepreneurial process. Experts defined entrepreneurial activity research as the scholarly examination of how, by whom and with what effects opportunities to create future goods and services are discovered, evaluated and exploited (Orwa, 2004). Prior research suggested that having specific information is crucial both in evaluating a venture idea and in facilitating the entrepreneurial mindset and activities. Knowledge is unevenly dispersed, and the possession of information related to a particular opportunity leads to opportunity discovery.
Although there has been much research on the role of information in opportunity recognition, the means by which entrepreneurs in the high technology domain actually recognize opportunities remains elusive. The role of information is especially crucial in high tech ventures due to the highly intensive dynamic nature of the ...