How Entrepreneurial Alertness and Prior Knowledge Shape Opportunity Recognition in Sustainable Rural Tourism

This study investigates how prior knowledge relates to entrepreneurial alertness and, in turn, to opportunity recognition among rural women operating in sustainable tourism. Focusing on an understudied context, we examine 200 female entrepreneurs from the Avroman region of Kermanshah Province, Iran. Using a cross-sectional survey with validated scales and applying partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), we test the relationships among the focal constructs. Results indicate that prior knowledge is positively associated with entrepreneurial alertness and that entrepreneurial alertness strongly predicts opportunity recognition. Mediation analysis further shows that entrepreneurial alertness fully mediates the effect of prior knowledge on opportunity recognition. These findings, consistent with alertness and absorptive-capacity perspectives, clarify how domain-specific experience shapes cognitive scanning and interpretation processes that support opportunity recognition in resource-constrained rural settings. The study contributes by contextualizing these cognitive mechanisms within a developing country and gendered rural tourism setting, showing how women’s knowledge-based alertness supports the creation of sustainable tourism opportunities. The findings offer practical implications for rural tourism development, including strengthening women’s domain-specific knowledge, enhancing their alertness skills, and improving access to local market information and support systems that enable opportunity recognition in rural tourism.