Opportunity confidence : a cognitive-based perspective

Abstract

The purpose of this doctoral thesis is to understand the elements that intervene in the development of Opportunity Beliefs (also known as Opportunity Confidence). In this sense, the relevance of external circumstances, as stimuli from the environment with the potential to elicit and/or enable new economic activities (“External Enablers”), and their interaction with an individual’s characteristics, are addressed as the potential origin of beliefs about business opportunities. With this aim in mind, a systematic review of available literature is undertaken, complemented by two empirical studies focused on technology-based Opportunity Beliefs, as a subset of all the types of opportunities that individuals and organizations may pursue. The first study comprises a systematic review of the literature on Opportunity Confidence found in 160 empirical research articles and, focusing on a metaframework approach, constructs the nomological network that describes what drives an individual to consider in the context - or in the opportunity - the origin of Opportunity Beliefs. Over and above this, taking a meta-theoretical approach, Opportunity Confidence literature is reconsidered from the Construal Level Theory (“CLT”) perspective. These complementary methods inspired reading on unique research questions, while providing certain theoretical explanations for unexpected results obtained in previous investigations in the field. The subsequent empirical studies are grouped under four findings: 1) the preponderance of technologies as stimuli; 2) lack of research on cognitive orientations; 3) lack of research on the different characteristics of technologies (e.g., degree of innovation); and 4) unexplored theories that have addressed human-technological relations (Technological Adoption theory), and perceptions (CLT). The second study, based on the cognitive context of the Technology Acceptance Model (“TAM”), theorizes on a reasoning process where an individual’s cognitive orientation (Technological Reflectiveness) interacts with characteristics in the stimulus (Usefulness and Easiness of use of internet technologies), favoring the development of Opportunity Beliefs in organizational environments. In a sample of 161 interviewees with a technological background, this research found evidence that Technological Reflections mediate the relationship between managerial perceptions of these characteristics within internet-based technologies, and managers' subsequent intentions to accept them as a basis for new business releases. The third study, based on psychological distance, derived from the Construal Level Theory, hypothesizes that most innovative technologies are naturally perceived as more distant. Based on three experiments applied to a population of 907 respondents of entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs, this study found evidence that the psychological distance of technologies differentially affects concerns of feasibility and alignment with the market, contrasting with desirability features that attend the formation of business Opportunity Beliefs. These results are also evident in prospections about business profits and the probability of occurrence of such profits. Results also show that the perception of distance from the technology produces shifts in the beliefs about when, where and for whom, will technologies favor the creation of new economic activities. Thus, the findings of this doctoral thesis evidence the relevance of the characteristics of External Enablers - particularly in technologies - and their interaction with the individual characteristics in the formation of Opportunity Beliefs (i.e., Opportunity Confidence), contributing to the seminal discussion in entrepreneurship research about why, when and how some people and not others identify opportunities (Shane & Venkataraman, 2000).