Entrepreneurial opportunity recognition: an empirical study of R&D personnel

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the antecedents of, and the relationships between, entrepreneurial opportunity recognition, and individual‐level innovation performance. Design/methodology/approach Questionnaire data were collected from 268 senior R&D project team members (response rate 64.58 percent) along with 83 R&D managers who evaluated their employees' innovative behaviors in one science park in Taiwan. Findings The results show that an individual's self‐efficacy, prior knowledge, social networks, and perception about the industrial environment on opportunities all had positive effects on entrepreneurial opportunity recognition. Also entrepreneurial opportunity recognition contributed significantly to individual‐level innovation performance. Research limitations/implications The findings show that perception about the industrial environment on opportunities variable was the most important predictor among all four of the antecedents of entrepreneurial opportunity recognition. That is, individual characteristics and traits cannot fully explain the entrepreneurial opportunity recognition process. Because the data were limited to high technology industry, future studies need to validate these findings in other industries. Practical implications Findings of this study suggest that to increase R&D employee's innovation performance, it is critical for high technology firms to invest in developing and enhancing employees' entrepreneurial opportunity recognition ability. Originality/value The process of entrepreneurial opportunity recognition has been viewed as a black box. Although the literature has explored various antecedents that influence entrepreneurial opportunity recognition, there is limited empirical research that has examined the linkage between entrepreneurial opportunity recognition and potential outcome variables.