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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The entrepreneurial ecosystem within Chinese vocational colleges offers a unique platform to investigate the interplay between entrepreneurial passion, education and intention. This study aims to assess the effect of entrepreneurial education on alertness, passion and mindset, in turn, on entrepreneurial orientation and intentions. In addition, the study examines the mediating role of the entrepreneurial mindset between entrepreneurial passion and education; and to identify the moderating effect of entrepreneurial self-efficacy between entrepreneurial orientation and intentions.

Using a cross-sectional methodology based on self-reported data from students across various Chinese vocational colleges, the study used a quantitative method to derive its findings.

The results highlighted a strong positive effect of entrepreneurial education on passion, mindset and alertness. The study also found that an increased emphasis on entrepreneurial education fostered a proactive entrepreneurial orientation, a significant predictor of entrepreneurial intentions. The entrepreneurial mindset played a pivotal mediating role, enhancing the direct effects observed. Moreover, students with higher entrepreneurial self-efficacy exhibited a more substantial inclination towards entrepreneurial intentions, further buttressed by their orientation.

This study underscores the critical role of fostering passion, education and self-efficacy in cultivating entrepreneurial intentions among students in Chinese vocational colleges, offering valuable theoretical and managerial implications for educators and policymakers alike.

This study extends the literature on top management team (TMT) diversity and innovation by introducing entrepreneurial passion diversity as an important TMT affective component in determining firm innovation performance. This paper draws on the knowledge-based view and proposes that TMT passion diversity, in terms of intensity separation and focus variety, may hinder the process of knowledge creation, and, in turn, reduce firm innovation performance.

The authors conduct a questionnaire survey using a simple random sampling technique and collect data from 195 small- and medium-sized enterprises in China. Ordinary least squares regression and a structural equation model are applied to test the hypotheses.

This study finds that TMT passion intensity separation has a negative effect on firm innovation performance via knowledge exchange and knowledge combination. TMT passion focus variety has a negative effect on firm innovation performance via knowledge combination.

This study highlights the affective diversity of entrepreneurial passion in TMTs and clarifies the detrimental role of TMT entrepreneurial passion diversity in innovation and knowledge creation. It contributes new insights to the literature on TMT diversity, knowledge management and entrepreneurial passion.

Discovering opportunities is a key entrepreneurship competence for those who want to start their own business and who choose to enter the workforce. In this study, the authors focus on the antecedents of the ability to discover entrepreneurial opportunities by uncovering how and when students' personal initiative (Frese and Fay, 2001) leads to an increase in this key competency. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of risk-taking and creativity in the interplay between personal initiative and opportunity discovery competencies among university students.

Data were collected with a self-assessment tool in two moments in time, using a sample of 103 university students from Portugal enrolled in an entrepreneurship course. The authors measured personal initiative and entrepreneurial risk-taking at the beginning of the entrepreneurship course (Time 1). Two months later (Time 2), by the end of an entrepreneurship course, the authors measured creativity and opportunity discovery abilities.

The results of this study showed that risk-taking mediates the effect of personal initiative on opportunity discovery and that creativity interacts with risk-taking and opportunity discovery. Specifically, the authors found that the relationship between entrepreneurial risk-taking and opportunity discovery is positive and statistically significant when students display average or above-average creativity. The indirect effect of the personal initiative on opportunity discovery through entrepreneurial risk-taking seems to increase when the student's creativity increases, as the index of moderated mediation is positive.

As with all studies, there are limitations to work of this study. First, data of this study is restricted to a sample of students from Portugal. As such, the authors should be careful about generalizations concerning students from other cultural settings; entrepreneurship competencies can differ across countries. Second, the findings of the present study are based on students’ self-reports regarding their own entrepreneurship competencies.

This work can inspire entrepreneurship educators to look at the entrepreneurship competencies models holistically and inspire future work to explore the relationship patterns between entrepreneurial competencies.

The present study used the job-demands and resources (JD-R) framework to understand how the training is transferred to an extreme working context through the analysis of job and personal resources (social support from the leader and colleagues and adaptability). Specifically, the authors tested the mediating role of motivation to transfer in the relationship (1) between the perceived support from the supervisor and colleagues and performance after training and (2) between adaptability and performance in an extreme context of the pandemic crisis – the first peak of COVID-19 in Portugal. Further, an inspection of the factors that predicted knowledge transfer and adaptability under an extreme context was carried out.

To do so, necessary training about the new safety rules regarding the pandemic crisis of COVID-19 was implemented in a healthcare institution as a strategy to help healthcare workers deal with the increasing uncertainty and complexity that was threatening their work. It consisted of three sessions (each with one hour of training) regarding procedures, rules and safety norms. The training occurred in May 2020. Overall, 291 healthcare workers participated in the study and answered one online questionnaire one week after training completion.

The results showed that the motivation to transfer had a significant indirect effect on the relationship between colleagues' and supervisors' support and performance and between adaptability and performance. Additionally, complementary analyses showed that the mediations depended on the levels of self-efficacy in such a way that the indirect relationships were stronger when self-efficacy was higher. Thus, adaptability and support, both from colleagues and the supervisor, are determining factors for knowledge transfer and resultant performance in extreme contexts, such as the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Lastly, the results showed that the most significant predictors of transference were self-efficacy and the motivation to transfer the learned knowledge. On the other hand, self-efficacy, peer support and the opportunity to use the knowledge were the most significant predictors of adaptability.

These findings provide support for the role of employee motivation to transfer as a mechanism connecting both perceived support and adaptability to performance outcomes under extreme working contexts.

This study, conducted in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic context – an extreme and uncertain working context – shows the relevance of both job and individual factors to predict employees' adaptability to such contexts.

This study examines the relationship between entrepreneurial passion, entrepreneurial support programs and entrepreneurial intention, and the moderating role of entrepreneurial support programs in the relationship between entrepreneurial passion and entrepreneurial intention, among students with physical disabilities in Nigerian tertiary institutions.

This study used a closed-ended questionnaire survey, composed of previously validated scales, to sample 209 students with physical disabilities at tertiary institutions in Nigeria. Hierarchal regression was performed to assess the relationships between the variables and test the hypotheses.

Both entrepreneurial passion and entrepreneurial support programs were found to be significantly positively related to entrepreneurial intention, and entrepreneurial support programs also moderated the relationship between entrepreneurial passion and entrepreneurial intention.

This research paper identifies that developing entrepreneurial passion and providing accessible and inclusive entrepreneurial support programs are valuable in supporting and facilitating a passage into entrepreneurship for those with disabilities.

This research paper addresses calls for further understanding of how those with disabilities can be supported into entrepreneurship, by identifying supporting factors. The research paper provides further understanding of the entrepreneurial passion and intention nexus by exploring the relationship within those with a physical disability, where significant barriers exist and within a developing country context where entrepreneurship might be a necessity rather than driven by passion.

The study aimed at identifying job insecurity during COVID-19 as a determinant of green entrepreneurial intentions under the mediating role of entrepreneurial passion. Further, moderated mediation model of environmental consciousness and environmental knowledge on the relationship between job insecurity during COVID-19 and green entrepreneurial intentions through entrepreneurial passion as a mediator is also measured.

The study employed Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and analysis of a moment structure (AMOS) to calculate the measurement and structure model. Data was collected from the twin cities of Pakistan (Islamabad and Rawalpindi). A total of 389 usable responses were included in the analyses.

Considering entrepreneurship as a process, the result shows a significant relationship between the study variables. Also, it is realized that entrepreneurial passion serves as an important mediator between job insecurity during COVID-19 and green entrepreneurial intention. Both entrepreneurial knowledge and environmental consciousness have an indirect conditional effect on the relationship between job insecurity during COVID-19 and green entrepreneurial intention with entrepreneurial passion as a mediator. The study tested a novel relationship between job insecurity during COVID-19 and entrepreneurial passion under the lens of contingency theory and entrepreneurial event theory.

The extreme necessity to choose an alternative to full-time jobs is entrepreneurial endeavors that can be explored by entrepreneurs. Policymakers can capitalize on this scenario by proposing entrepreneurial opportunities which are green as well. The term Green represents an environmental friendly business, which one can start in the context of COVID-19 when everyone is oriented to cleanliness, personal hygiene and environment friendly.

The study tested a novel relationship between job insecurity during COVID-19 and entrepreneurial passion under the lens of contingency theory and entrepreneurial event theory. It contributes to the present stock of knowledge and understanding of the subject by contextualizing the concept of green entrepreneurial intention.

Based on action regulation theory (ART), this study aims to test the impact of individual entrepreneurial orientation (IEO) training on small business owner career success (financial attainment, satisfaction and achievement). Moreover, this relationship was unpacked through a dual mediation model of IEO behaviour and career resilience.

A four-wave, longitudinal randomized controlled field experiment was conducted in which 527 small business owners participated from Lahore, Pakistan (training group = 256, control group = 271). The data analysis was done via ANCOVAs (group comparison) and PROCESS Model 6 (for serial mediation).

The results demonstrated that after getting IEO training, the small business owners had increased IEO behaviour, career resilience and career success as compared to their counterparts in the control group. In addition, the effect of IEO training on career success was attributed to the underlying role of IEO behaviour and career resilience development.

This is one of the few studies that have demonstrated the impact of IEO training on the career-related outcomes based on the action regulation perspective.

The present study investigates the impact of digital entrepreneurial education and training and its impact on the digital entrepreneurial intention (EI) through the mediating character of entrepreneurial competence.

A total of 391 survey responses were collected from employees using convenient and snowball sampling methods.

Digital entrepreneurial education and training showed a positive influence on entrepreneurial competence and EI, with entrepreneurial competence mediating the relationship between digital entrepreneurial education and training practices and EI.

This study is intended to assist the development of digital entrepreneurs. The implications of this study are also useful for governments, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, angel investors and various international development institutions.

The novelty of this study relates to exploring the relationship between digital entrepreneurial education and training, entrepreneurial competence and digital EI.

This study aims to empirically assess entrepreneurial leadership skills’ role in Corporate Sustainable Development (CSD) and firm performance (FP). This study considers five specific entrepreneurial traits: innovativeness, creativity, analytical thinking, emotional intelligence and passion and motivation. The motivation for this investigation stems from concerns over micro-firms vulnerabilities and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) lacking proper leadership skills. This study is guided by the resource-based view theory and conducted during the pandemic, offering insights into firms operating under constrained conditions.

Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM), were used on survey responses from 321 Bahraini firms. This study’s data collection occurred under environmental uncertainties due to the pandemic and provides a unique context for understanding CSD and entrepreneurial leadership skills under high business/environmental uncertainty.

The findings reveal that entrepreneurial leadership skills positively impact CSD and firm performance through creativity, passion and motivation. However, innovativeness negatively affects CSD and FP. Furthermore, CSD positively influences firm performance.

Theoretical and practical implications, plus limitations, are also discussed in this study.

Understanding entrepreneurial leadership skills effect on CSD and firm performance in SMEs is important as SEMs are prone to fail in the early years. This study’s findings and its implications help guide SME leaders in furthering their entrepreneurial leadership skills to foster CSD and firm performance.

This study contributes to comprehending the crucial role of entrepreneurial skills, during uncertain times of the pandemic, for SMEs’ survival. It provides valuable insights for firms operating in competitive environments, offering a unique perspective on the required entrepreneurial skills and their effect on CSD and firm performance.