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Previous research has predominantly approached the concept of entrepreneurial opportunities from either one of two perspectives: opportunities exist as objective phenomena in the environment waiting to be discovered by alert entrepreneurs, or opportunities are subjectively perceived and even created by individual entrepreneurs. This paper aims to put forward a framework of opportunity perception which demonstrates that all entrepreneurial opportunities possess both objective and subjective qualities, thus helping reconcile both perspectives.

A conceptual framework is developed, based on previous literature and insights from entrepreneurship, economics, psychology and related disciplines.

Various perspectives presented in previous research can be combined into a coherent framework that summarizes the components of entrepreneurial opportunity perception. Testable propositions are provided for future research.

The authors show that elements of both subjective perception and objective market conditions contribute to recognized entrepreneurial opportunities. Also, they show that while the perception and pursuit of opportunity is fundamentally idiosyncratic to each entrepreneur, the success of an entrepreneurial endeavor is constrained by the objective conditions of opportunity.

This paper aims to analyze how different experts in entrepreneurship perceive their surrounding environment and business opportunities. The authors suggest that people act the way they do not only because of different interpretations of the environment but also because of the relative importance they give to the context and themselves in their mental scripts.

A Mann–Whitney U non-parametric test and principal component analysis were conducted to examine the national expert survey from the global entrepreneurship monitor database of Chilean exports.

When experts in entrepreneurship are compared, entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs differ in their use of certain cognitive resources about past or current events, but they map out future situations similarly, suggesting that their mental simulations may converge into similar patterns.

This study provides useful insights regarding the impact that mental representation has on experts’ perception, by discussing how experts who are entrepreneurs perceive the entrepreneurial ecosystem and current opportunities differently than experts who are not entrepreneurs. The specific context plays a key role in the way entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs analyze their surrounding environment but not necessarily opportunities.

Entrepreneurial alertness is a key factor in business opportunity identification. Scholars have determined that successful entrepreneurs have high levels of entrepreneurial alertness, but only a limited number of studies are available on the concept. One of the major reasons identified is the fragmented constituents and less knowledge of the components determining the level of alertness. The present study aims to integrate the varied research on entrepreneurial alertness, identify its core components and develop the understanding of the concept of entrepreneurial alertness.

The study is based on a systematic review of secondary research. The first stage involved identifying relevant publications and applying practical screening. In the second stage, the resources were screened for the inclusion criteria, and in the final stage, the articles meeting the inclusion criteria were read in detail for the final analysis.

The review resulted in identification of the following core components of the alertness construct – sensing and searching information, cognitive ability, personality factors (like creativity and self-efficacy), environment, social networks, knowledge and experience. The review also highlighted that cognitive ability plays a central role in alertness.

Based on the review of literature, the study proposes a model of the alertness construct, which attempts to draw a relationship between the identified components. The review also uncovers several unexplored areas, which still need to be addressed in the area of entrepreneurial alertness.

The current research aimed to investigate the external enablement role of Digital Infrastructures (DI) in the interplay of entrepreneurial cognitions and innovation.

Data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) and Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) were used for analyses. This yielded a sample of 8,601 Generation Z entrepreneurs operating in 25 European countries.

Applying hierarchical moderated regressions showed that socio-cognitive components of an entrepreneurial mindset (self-efficacy, risk propensity, opportunity identification) affect innovation among Generation Z entrepreneurs. More importantly, DI plays an external enablement role in the interplay of cognitions and innovation among Generation Z entrepreneurs.

This study contributes to the socio-cognitive theory of entrepreneurship by integrating an external enablement perspective into the study of cognitions and entrepreneurial outcomes (here, innovation). It contributes to the digital technology perspective of entrepreneurship by connecting the conversation about the socio-cognitive perspective of entrepreneurship regarding the role of cognitions in innovation to the conversation in information systems (IS) regarding technology affordances and constraints. This study extends the application of the external enabler framework to the post-entry stage of entrepreneurial activity and integrates a generational perspective into it.

This study explores entrepreneurial decision-making in the equity crowdfunding (ECF) context, and it aims to shed some light on the relationship among three aspects: entrepreneurial characteristics (i.e. entrepreneurial alertness and entrepreneurial self-efficacy), entrepreneurial motivations (i.e. promotion, improvement of networking and acquisition of product and market knowledge) and entrepreneurial behaviours (i.e. campaign characteristics in terms of communication and offerings).

The hypotheses testing and analysis were conducted using the partial least squares approach to structural equation modelling, and data were collected from the overall population of Italian ECF platforms.

Our results highlight that entrepreneurial characteristics may be central in ECF because of their significant impact on some motivation entrepreneurs have to adopt ECF, which in turn have an impact on meaningful campaign characteristics that can influence ECF performance.

The current literature is mainly focused on investors' decisions, while a neglected perspective until now has been that of entrepreneurs. This study is among the first to focus on entrepreneurs in the ECF context, and, to the best of our knowledge, it is the first study to investigate the entrepreneurial decision-making process. The added value of this research lies in the analysis of the entrepreneurial aspects underlying entrepreneurial decisions to use ECF.

Existing literature suggests that the need for a conducive environment is crucial in developing entrepreneurship. Previous research on this trend has focused on what constitutes a munificent environment and how environmental conditions stimulate an entrepreneur's intentionality to start a venture. However, little is known about how entrepreneurs “switch on” their alertness to business opportunities in a benign environment. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of environmental munificence on entrepreneurs' alertness, as moderated by self‐efficacy, and the effects of this alertness on entrepreneurs' commitment to their new ventures.

Data were used from the Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics (PSED) to test the hypotheses. Exploratory Factor Analysis and Confirmatory Factor Analysis were conducted to ensure the dimensionality of entrepreneurial commitment scale. Hypotheses were tested using moderated hierarchical regression analysis.

The results of this study show a strong relationship between environmental munificence and alertness especially when the entrepreneurs have high levels of self‐efficacy in performing the roles and tasks of new venture creation. In turn, entrepreneurial alertness is related to continuance, behavioral and affective commitment of entrepreneurs.

The findings have important implications for the theory and practice of developing entrepreneurial firms.

In order to answer why and how some individuals identify opportunities, the purpose of this paper is to offer a comprehensive framework of key effective factors that investigates the role of prior knowledge and cognitive characteristics of entrepreneurial alertness and learning in the entrepreneurial opportunities recognition process.

First, the authors identified key effective factors and developed research hypotheses and conceptual model. Second, the authors considered research methodology including sampling and data collection, measurement model. The third section presents a report of the results from the analysis of the structural model and the hypotheses tests.

The findings show that all the three factors had positive impact on opportunity recognition. It is also confirmed that prior knowledge has significant impact on entrepreneurial alertness and learning. Finally, the results demonstrate that both entrepreneurial alertness and learning partially mediated the relationship between prior knowledge and opportunity recognition.

Possible effects of other cognitive characteristics such as creativity and innovation can be considered in the model to increase accuracy of the findings. Also, comparative studies with the proposed framework in different industrial domains can be conducted in order to compare the possible differences concerning the role of the factors in opportunity recognition.

By using this model, entrepreneurs will be able to identify and enhance the factors that influence opportunity recognition, thus honing this entrepreneurial ability. Also, this framework can be employed in the field of education to identify opportunity recognition problems in individuals and to foster entrepreneurs.

This paper presents a new integrated model that would examine the impact of key effective factors of entrepreneurial opportunity recognition simultaneously while taking into account the interactions among them.

The purpose of this conceptual paper is to integrate two previously disparate areas of research: mindfulness and the entrepreneurial process. This present study conceptualizes the impact of mindfulness on the choices entrepreneurs face. Specifically, the research theorizes the positive effects of mindfulness on the opportunity recognition process, including evaluation of entrepreneurs. Furthermore, we propose that metacognition mediates this relationship, and emotional self-regulation moderates it. This conceptual research also suggests that mindfulness is positively related to the ethical decision-making and opportunity recognition and evaluation. Finally, compassion is proposed as a factor that mediates the relationship between mindfulness and ethical choices in opportunity recognition.

Despite an increasing number of publications focusing on the phenomenon of entrepreneurial learning, it is still unclear how this learning process differs from wider organizational learning. This paper aims to address this gap by highlighting four key processual dimensions unique to entrepreneurial learning: intuiting, scanning, internalizing and routinizing.

Drawing on various conceptual and empirical papers published in this area over the past 20 years, common threads in the literature are identified, which point towards these four key dimensions of entrepreneurial learning.

It is thus argued that the ability of the entrepreneurial team to learn form and adapt to changes in the external market involves all four dimensions of intuiting, scanning, internalizing and routinizing. Intuiting involves drawing on prior knowledge to create new opportunity sets, and skills. These ideas and skills are then tested in the market, through scanning and market research. Internalizing allows the entrepreneurial team to question taken for granted assumptions, as existing ways of working and views of the world are continually adapted. Finally, routinization is the process whereby the entrepreneurial team accumulates a situated knowledge of the changing world around them, and in the process, frees up valuable cognitive resources, needed in the continual process of intuiting, scanning and internalizing.

It is argued that the adaptability of entrepreneurial ventures hinges on all four processual dimensions.

We offer a theoretical account of how two types of bricolage influence the entrepreneurial process. The first type involves social relationships or physical or functional assets, and thus pertains to an entrepreneurʼs external resources used in the instantiation of operations of a new venture. The second type pertains to an entrepreneurʼs internal resources‐experiences, credentials, knowledge, and certifications‐which the entrepreneur appropriates, assembles, modifies and deploys in the presentation of a narrative about the entrepreneurial process. We argue that both types of bricolage are essential to the success of a venturing attempt.