Information Exposure, Opportunity Evaluation, and Entrepreneurial Action: An Investigation of an Online User Community

Abstract

We study how an individual's exposure to external information regulates the evaluation of entrepreneurial opportunities and entrepreneurial action. Combining data from interviews, a survey, and a comprehensive web log of an online user community spanning eight years, we find that technical information shaped opportunity evaluation and that social information about user needs drove individuals to entrepreneurial action. Our empirical findings suggest that reducing demand uncertainty is a central factor regulating entrepreneurial action, an insight that received theories of entrepreneurial action have so far overlooked.

The formation of opportunity beliefs among university entrepreneurs: an empirical study of research- and non-research-driven venture ideas

“…Strong third-person opportunity beliefs are positively related to the number of conducted gestation activities. This results supports previous research that reducing uncertainty, especially response uncertainty and uncertainty about customers demand for one's product or service, is a central factor in regulating entrepreneurial action (Autio et al 2013;McKelvie et al 2011). However, there are again indications that this relationship does not hold for all types of venture ideas.…”

“…The average level of agreement is lower for research-driven venture ideas with the difference between research-driven and non-research-driven venture ideas being statistically significant (2-tailed t test; t = 2.414, sign: 0.016). relevant determinants of opportunity beliefs and entrepreneurial activity (Autio et al 2013;Brush et al 2008;Oehler et al 2014).…”

Opportunity Evaluation as Future Focused Cognition: Identifying Conceptual Themes and Empirical Trends

“…In the opportunity evaluation stage, entrepreneurs are engaged in interpretive processes, where they use their experience and knowledge to 'mentalize' (Van Overwalle 2009) events and circumstances by constructing mental images of 'what could be' as they discern the degree to which an opportunity is worth pursing (McMullen 2010). Alternatively, opportunity exploitation involves the actual opportunity pursuit in the form of action such as the assembly of resources required to develop a new product or service offering, or the establishment of a new business (Autio et al 2013).…”

“…events, situations and circumstances) represent a personally desirable (i.e. attractive) future course of action (Autio et al 2013;Haynie et al 2009;Shepherd et al 2007). Using these guidelines, the authors independently read the abstracts and excluded articles (via coding as non-relevant) that did not focus on opportunity evaluation in a meaningful way or did not consider the cognitive aspects of evaluation in some way.…”

“…This could be partially attributable to the use of varied terms in explaining what opportunity evaluation involves. Opportunity confidence (Dimov 2010) and opportunity feasibility and desirability (Autio et al 2013), for example, have been used to describe cognitions that underpin opportunity evaluation. While the terms differ, there are close parallels in the conceptual logic used.…”