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

Abstract

The evaluation of opportunities to introduce new goods or services to one or more markets is an essential part of entrepreneurship, and the last decade ushered in a steady stream of studies on the topic. However, to date, this knowledge has not been systematically reviewed. The current article addresses this gap by synthesizing studies that speak to the evaluation of entrepreneurial opportunities. The review of 53 articles involves the development of a thematic framework used to organize the literature in terms of conceptual and empirical themes as well as patterns in publication trends. The insights derived culminate in an integrative framework that conceptually describes what goes on in the ‘mind in the middle’ as opportunity evaluation unfolds. The model illuminates a path for future research that guides improved understanding of the cognitive dynamics that lead some individuals to believe that a set of circumstances represents an attractive opportunity while others have little confidence that the same circumstances represent an opportunity at all.

Degree of innovation and the entrepreneurs’ intention to create value: a comparative study of experienced and novice entrepreneurs

“…Opportunity confidence is a new concept in the opportunity evaluation literature which was introduced by Dimov (2010), in the context of nascent entrepreneurs and start-up efforts. It pertains to two behavioral beliefs about a new idea at hand, namely feasibility and desirability (Grégoire and Shepherd 2012;Haynie et al 2009;Wood and McKelvie 2015). However, as the relationship between the opportunity confidence and intention to create value has not been examined before (see Fig.…”

Social Norms and Entrepreneurial Action: The Mediating Role of Opportunity Confidence

“…Entrepreneurs act in the face of uncertainty to discover, evaluate, and exploit profitable opportunities often in the form of new ventures [11]. For example, in the domain of the opportunity evaluation, it distinguishes between general opportunities and specific opportunities and this distinction can be only uncovered through action [12,13]. The evaluation part of the entrepreneurial journey relies on both indigenous and exogenous factors, where the former refers to an individual's behavioral beliefs such as their assessments of the favorability and desirability of an action at hand, and the latter refers to norms and culture surrounding an individual's institutional environment [14,15].…”

Feel the commitment: From situational emotional information to venture goal commitment

“…The recent research defines opportunity evaluation as assessing the first-person attractiveness (i.e., for me or my firm) of introducing new goods or services (Haynie, Shepherd & McMullen, 2009). Furthermore, scholars argued that opportunities are evaluated based on specific environmental or situational cues (Williams & Wood, 2015, Wood & McKelvie, 2015. Hence, we regard opportunity evaluation as an immediate subjective assessment about the personal attractiveness of a venture opportunity based on its situational characteristics.…”