A Dynamic Model of Entrepreneurial Uncertainty and Business Opportunity Identification: Exploration as a Mediator and Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy as a Moderator

By A. Schmitt, Kathrin Rosing, Stephen X. Zhang, Michael Leatherbee. Entrepreneurship: Theory & Practice, 2017

146 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This study focuses on the identification of business opportunities when entrepreneurs’ perceived level of environmental uncertainty changes. We suggest that within persons, exploration mediates this relationship and entrepreneurial self-efficacy moderates whether entrepreneurs explore more or less with increasing uncertainty. To test our moderated mediation model we conducted a monthly field study with 121 early-stage entrepreneurs. Multilevel regression analyses reveal that an increase in the level of perceived uncertainty within entrepreneurs predicted the identification of opportunities through exploration for entrepreneurs high in self-efficacy, but not for those low in self-efficacy. Entrepreneurial self-efficacy acts as a personal resource that helps entrepreneurs to transform increasing perceptions of uncertainty into exploration and opportunity identification.

Subfields: Business and International Management, Management of Technology and Innovation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/4e87bfce7beeb420787b8717945f9c772e70c704

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In Business and International Management

In Management of Technology and Innovation

Citations in the corpus

Entrepreneurial behaviour: The effects of the fear and anxiety of Covid-19 and business opportunity recognition (2021, background): “…because it comes in rescue whenever choosing a suitable idea before performing a business venture, adapting and working with all the acquired abilities and skills (Schmitt et al., 2018), thus increasing entrepreneurial self-efficacy and start-up intention and behaviour (Hassan et al., 2020).”
Entrepreneurial alertness: Exploring its psychological antecedents and effects on firm outcomes (2021, background): “In the opportunity recognition context, perceived uncertainty is found to have a stronger effect on opportunity identification for entrepreneurs with higher self-efficacy (Schmitt et al., 2018).”