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The purpose of this paper is to empirically explore the impact of culture (using individualism, power distance and uncertainty avoidance) on entrepreneurial risk taking behavior which leads to the opportunity exploitation decision. Moreover, it also uses risk taking behavior of entrepreneurial as the mediation variable between culture and opportunity exploitations decisions.

The study took place in Tanzania, which is allocated in East Africa and is one of under researched countries. In total, 140 entrepreneurs who own venture of 5-99 employees were able to be interviewed using a survey questionnaire. In this study, structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to examine the direct and indirect relationship of culture in entrepreneurial opportunity exploitation decisions.

After hypothesis testing, the empirical results showed that Tanzania’s culture has an impact on entrepreneurial risk taking behavior, which influences entrepreneurial opportunity exploitation decision. It also showed culture through individualism and uncertainty avoidance measurements affect entrepreneurial opportunity exploitation decisions. The empirical results on power distance were insignificant.

This study is a wake-up call to policy makers and formal institutions such as government authorities, education institutions and religion institutions. Thus, culture has an ability to influence the behavior of entrepreneurs and so the performance of ventures if it is consistent and well structured. Therefore it should be not taken for granted. Data for our study are based on only two cities and therefore the results should not be generalized as the whole country’s inference. Generalizability is questioned because the data are from only two cities in Tanzania and therefore future research should include more cities to be able to validate the generalizability.

This study is a wake-up call to policymakers and formal institutions such as government authorities, education institutions and religion institutions. Thus culture has an ability to influence the behavior of entrepreneurs and so the performance of ventures if it is consistent and well structured. Therefore it should be not taken for granted. Data for our study are based on only two cities and therefore the results should not be generalized as the whole country’s inference.

In the country which has well-structured culture, influence the behavior of entrepreneurs to exploit opportunities.

This is the first empirical study to use SEM for exploring the culture of individualism, power distance and uncertainty avoidance impact on entrepreneurial opportunity exploitation in Tanzania.

Opportunity recognition and opportunity exploitation are two central concepts in the entrepreneurial process. However, there is a lack of both a clear specification of the content domains of the constructs and valid and reliable multi-item scales for their measurement. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This paper first reveals existing issues around the definitions and measures relating to the concepts, then defines their content domains, and also proposes scale items to measure the concepts. Four samples are used to develop the measurement instruments.

Two scales are suggested, one to measure opportunity recognition, and other to measure opportunity exploitation. The scales demonstrate reliability and construct, discriminant, and nomological validity.

The resulting instruments provide tools for research and practice that could prove valuable when examining the antecedents and consequences of both opportunity recognition and opportunity exploitation.

This paper aims to highlight the possibility that the same cultural and/or institutional environment can differentially affect each of the two moments of entrepreneurship – opportunity identification and opportunity exploitation. It is possible that the cultural and institutional environment in a particular place may encourage opportunity identification, but discourage opportunity exploitation, or vice versa. Specifically, this paper argues that understanding entrepreneurship in Trinidad and Tobago requires that we focus on how Trinidadian culture and institutions differentially affect both moments of entrepreneurship.

To examine how Trinidad and Tobago’s culture and institutions affect entrepreneurial opportunity identification and exploitation in that country, the paper uses a qualitative approach. In total, 25 subjects agreed to interviews, conducted in July and August 2009 in Trinidad. The questions were geared at understanding attitudes toward work and entrepreneurship in Trinidad, and how politics, culture and ethnicity interacted with those attitudes. The paper also examined institutional indicators from the Economic Freedom of the World: 2013 Annual Report and the World Bank’s 2016 Doing Business Report.

The research identified features of the cultural and institutional environment in Trinidad and Tobago that help to explain why opportunity identification is relatively common among all ethnic groups there, but why opportunity exploitation appears relatively suppressed among African–Trinidadians. In particular, the research finds that the inheritance of British institutions, a post-colonial political culture, a post-colonial business culture and ethnically based social networks all have positive and negative influences on each moment of entrepreneurship.

Further research would involve an analysis of a wider set of both formal and informal entrepreneurial activities in Trinidad and Tobago, across industries and periods.

This paper has implications for understanding the complex nature of entrepreneurship, which many policymakers try to encourage, but which is shaped by deep cultural and historical factors, and also indirectly influenced by state policies and laws.

Ethnic patterns in entrepreneurship shape the way groups see themselves and others.

While authors writing about opportunity recognition/identification and opportunity exploitation have captured the important dimensions of entrepreneurship, they underestimate the possibility of a disconnect between entrepreneurial identification and exploitation. Focusing on instances where the disconnect exists allows us to move away from characterizations of cultures as progress-prone or progress-resistant, and instead allows us to focus on these gaps between identifying and exploiting entrepreneurship across cultures.

To most, opportunity recognition and exploitation are the key activities of entrepreneurship. In their 1989 paper on the subject the authors identified a factor structure useful in explaining the process. The present work compares the 1998 results with the 1989 results. Evidence is provided that there is a stable temporal model of opportunity recognition and exploitation.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate exploration and exploitation as antecedents to speed of internationalization in born global firms.

By using 150 born global firms in China, the authors demonstrate that the influence of exploration and exploitation on born globals’ speed of internationalization. The statistical method in this study is hierarchical regression model.

The results revealed that exploration has a negative effect on the internationalization of born global firms, whereas exploration does not. The interaction between exploration and exploitation has positive influence on born globals’ speed of internationalization.

The study helps entrepreneurs and managers to better understand how to achieve international entrepreneurship success and internationalization success.

This study makes a theoretical development of internationalization speed, a core aspect of international entrepreneurship theory. First, this study contributes to theories on born globals’ speed of internationalization, which the authors redefined in the current study by using two approaches to measure the speed of internationalization of born global firms. Second, the study used exploration and exploitation as the two designated factors that are supposed to affect the speed of internationalization of born globals which contributes to the theoretical literature of international opportunity.

The academic inquiry of operational capabilities (OCs) has claimed focal interest in mainstream strategy research. Recent theoretical advances suggest these capabilities are a fundamental trigger to the identification and exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities. However, the extant literature has been, at best, partial with regard to empirical insights that integrate OCs with entrepreneurial opportunities. Addressing this theoretical lacuna from the standpoint of organisational learning theory, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the interplay between OCs and entrepreneurial opportunities and their overall impact on exporting SME’s growth.

To realise the empirical aims a descriptive research design employing a survey methodology was used. The authors are generated data from a sample of 117 exporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in Croatia. Ordinary least squares regression was employed to test the conceptual model and five derived hypotheses.

The findings demonstrate that market-sensing capabilities are vital in enhancing exporting SME’s opportunity recognition capacity and the rate of international opportunity exploitation that leads to increased firm growth. Also, study findings show that the link between the increased rate of international opportunity exploitation contributes more to the growth when exporting SMEs have highly developed adaptive and innovation capabilities.

This study brings to surface some novel insights about how exporting SMEs can better design their export marketing strategy. The results suggest, OCs occupy key role in the exporting SMEs international venturing efforts by delivering higher growth.

The study contributes to the export marketing strategy field by offering empirical evidence that both capability and opportunity-based views should be assessed simultaneously in explaining exporting SME’s competitiveness. Finally, we offer valuable theoretical and practical implications as well as avenues for further research that should extend our knowledge in the field.

There is progress in entrepreneurship research. Important works in entrepreneurship increasingly appear in highly respected, mainstream journals (see Busenitz et al., 2003; Davidsson, Low & Wright, 2001). There is conceptual development that attracts attention (e.g. Shane & Venkataraman, 2000) and handbooks are compiled, providing the field with more of a common body of knowledge (Acs & Audretsch, 2003a; Shane, 2000a; Westhead & Wright, 2000). Further, there is evidence of methodological improvements (Chandler & Lyon, 2001) and accumulation of meaningful findings on various levels of analysis (Davidsson & Wiklund, 2001). Moreover, due to time lags in publication the reported improvements are likely to be underestimated. This author’s experience as organizer, reviewer and participant in core entrepreneurship conferences on both sides of the Atlantic (e.g. Babson; RENT) suggests that much of the lower end of the quality distribution has either disappeared from the submissions or is screened out in the review process. Much more than used to be the case a few years back we find among the presented papers research that is truly theory-driven; research on the earliest stages of business development, and research that employs methods suitable for causal inference, i.e. experiments and longitudinal designs.

Exploitation of project opportunities may bring more benefits than stipulated in the initial business case, and even stakeholder benefits that nobody thought of at the project initiation. The purpose of this paper is to suggest a new research area for megaprojects, i.e. the phenomenon of project opportunity exploitation as a means to increase the project benefits.

This is a single case study of an infrastructure megaproject, i.e. the construction and operation of a 50+ years old American bridge. Data cover information regarding 60+ years old historical documents, newspaper articles, interviews and video-recordings.

The findings of this paper are as follows: exploiting all opportunities created by the project and increasing project benefits require involvement from many categories of stakeholders; stakeholders get more involved in exploiting the opportunities created by the project when they are proud of the project; for some of the project-related opportunities, it might take a long time before they can be exploited (and related benefits achieved); and celebrating achievements of the project stimulate stakeholders to exploit opportunities created by the project and contribute to further project benefits.

Only few interviews were conducted. Interviewees were biased as all were very proud of the bridge. This is a single case study of a “rare species”, not representing most megaprojects.

To enhance project opportunity exploitation and increased benefits, the project owner (team) must continuously communicate about the project, also after project execution.

This study contributes to a gap within the literature on the phenomenon “project opportunity exploitation”. This is a very rich case study and of a “rare species”.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the direct and interaction effect of individuals’ human capital input and human capital output in the form of entrepreneurial self-confidence on the decision to exploit innovative opportunities.

Using a strategic entrepreneurship perspective, the authors suggest that when individuals with high human capital decide to exploit opportunities they do so by thinking and acting strategically. Strategic action(s) involves pursuing competitive advantages that enable a new venture to get a foothold in the market. The authors argue that such competitive advantages arise from the exploitation of innovative opportunities and individuals with high human capital are more likely to exploit innovative opportunities when they develop entrepreneurial self-confidence. The empirical analysis is based on a random sample of individuals from the adult population who are in the process of creating a new venture.

The results suggest that although human capital inputs and human capital output in the form of entrepreneurial self-confidence are significant factors in influencing the decision to exploit innovative opportunities, human capital inputs interact in different ways with human capital output in influencing this decision.

The main limitation of the authors’ study is the use of single item measures as indicators of innovative opportunity and human capital output (entrepreneurial self-confidence).

From a macro-perspective, the main implication of the study is that it is possible to assess the quality of entrepreneurship in an economy through individuals’ human capital and the proportion of innovative opportunities in the economy. Moreover, because not all types of human capital inputs influences the exploitation of innovative opportunities, policy makers can be selective in their policy interventions in spawning quality entrepreneurship in their economy.

Based on population-level data the authors’ study provides empirical evidence of the nature of entrepreneurial decisions being at the earliest phases of the entrepreneurial process. The study shows the importance of founders’ human capital inputs and outputs in influencing the quality of entrepreneurship in an economy. Moreover, the study extends the understanding the individual-opportunity nexus in promoting innovative entrepreneurship in an economy.

This research expands the scope of the exploitation/exploration literature which has generally embraced a firm-level perspective by showing the theoretical and practical relevance of this framework for the study of entrepreneurial behaviour from an individual-level perspective. The study exemplifies specific instances where explorative or exploitative aspects of behaviour are likely to be manifested as a response to specific types of shocks that precede and impact the decision to quit and start one’s own business. Different types of shocks or entrepreneurial events displace the individual from the inertia of existing behaviour and pave the way for the consideration of a new set of opportunities; a new set of opportunities where entrepreneurial initiatives are perceived to be both feasible and desirable (exploitation–exploitation). Drawing upon 80 semi-structured and longitudinal interviews with entrepreneurs who quitted their ‘salaried job’ in order to start their own business, the study: (a) provides an inventory of events/shocks found to precipitate the interviewees’ decision to quit, and (b) links the various types of shocks with the prospective explorative and/or exploitative entrepreneurial initiatives. In this respect, the dynamics that underlie the effects of shocks on entrepreneurial behaviour are illustrated, while blurriness and interrelatedness of exploitative and explorative aspects of entrepreneurial behaviour are exemplified. Such a detailed list of shocks may serve as reference tool for both prospective entrepreneurs who wish to make an entrepreneurial shift in their career, as well as managers who wish to be proactive in avoiding or encouraging entrepreneurial employee turnover.