IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/vrs/zirebs/v23y2020is1p1-12n1001.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Decoding the Entrepreneurial Capacity: the Case of Entrepreneurial Alertness

Author

Listed:
  • Stanić Marina

    (J.J. Strossmayer University of Osijek, Faculty of Economics, Trg Lj. Gaja 7, Osijek)

Abstract

Over the last few decades, entrepreneurial alertness has established its place as one of the central concepts in entrepreneurship research. It implies one’s ability to identify opportunities that are overlooked by others and as such plays an important role in the process of opportunity discovery and creation. Entrepreneurial alertness is theoretically set as a multidimensional construct that comprises of scanning and searching for new information, associating and connecting seemingly unrelated pieces of information and making evaluations and judgments about potential opportunities. The purpose of this study is to explore the notion of entrepreneurial alertness among the youth in order to identify its relationship with metacognitive knowledge, metacognitive experience, perception of self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intention. The aim is to provide suggestions and guidelines to scholars and educators about the ways entrepreneurial alertness can be developed and enhanced through teaching methods as well as specific activities offered to students during their university study. The sample includes 206 business students on the undergraduate and graduate level majoring in seven different areas (financial management, marketing, general management, trade and logistics, business informatics, entrepreneurship and economic policy and regional development). Statistical methods applied in the data analysis included correlation analysis, factor analysis and analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results showed a statistically significant positive relationship between entrepreneurial alertness and all four preselected variables: metacognitive knowledge, metacognitive experience, perceived self-efficacy, and entrepreneurial intent. Various student activities outside the classroom contribute to higher levels of students’ entrepreneurial alertness. However, not all activities equally contributed to the development of students’ metacognitive knowledge. Students who volunteered in local non-profit organizations, did an internship in a company that operates in Croatia, participated in providing consulting services to small and medium businesses and took part in national case study competitions demonstrated higher levels of metacognitive knowledge. Finally, the paper provides suggestions to scholars, educators and policy makers in the field of entrepreneurship and education.

Suggested Citation

  • Stanić Marina, 2020. "Decoding the Entrepreneurial Capacity: the Case of Entrepreneurial Alertness," Zagreb International Review of Economics and Business, Sciendo, vol. 23(s1), pages 1-12.
    • Handle: RePEc:vrs:zirebs:v:23:y:2020:i:s1:p:1-12:n:1001
    DOI: 10.2478/zireb-2020-0019
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.2478/zireb-2020-0019
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2478/zireb-2020-0019?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kaish, Stanley & Gilad, Benjamin, 1991. "Characteristics of opportunities search of entrepreneurs versus executives: Sources, interests, general alertness," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 45-61, January.
    2. Ardichvili, Alexander & Cardozo, Richard & Ray, Sourav, 2003. "A theory of entrepreneurial opportunity identification and development," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 105-123, January.
    3. Laura E. Grube & Virgil Henry Storr, 2015. "The Role of Culture in Economic Action," Advances in Austrian Economics, in: New Thinking in Austrian Political Economy, volume 19, pages 21-46, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    4. Michael Haynie & Dean A. Shepherd, 2009. "A Measure of Adaptive Cognition for Entrepreneurship Research," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 33(3), pages 695-714, May.
    5. Kirzner, Israel M., 2008. "The Alert and Creative Entrepreneur: A Clarification," Working Paper Series 760, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    6. Gaglio, Connie Marie & Katz, Jerome A, 2001. "The Psychological Basis of Opportunity Identification: Entrepreneurial Alertness," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 95-111, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Valliere, Dave, 2013. "Towards a schematic theory of entrepreneurial alertness," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 430-442.
    2. Prandelli, Emanuela & Pasquini, Martina & Verona, Gianmario, 2016. "In user's shoes: An experimental design on the role of perspective taking in discovering entrepreneurial opportunities," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 287-301.
    3. Chitra Singla & Ludvig Levasseur, 2023. "The role of family in unfolding the process of external corporate venturing in small family businesses," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 61(1), pages 105-126, June.
    4. Lanivich, Stephen E. & Smith, Adam & Levasseur, Ludvig & Pidduck, Robert J. & Busenitz, Lowell & Tang, Jintong, 2022. "Advancing entrepreneurial alertness: Review, synthesis, and future research directions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 1165-1176.
    5. Dean A. Shepherd & Dawn R. DeTienne, 2005. "Prior Knowledge, Potential Financial Reward, and Opportunity Identification," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 29(1), pages 91-112, January.
    6. Peter Klein & Per Bylund, 2014. "The place of Austrian economics in contemporary entrepreneurship research," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 27(3), pages 259-279, September.
    7. Dheer, Ratan J.S. & Castrogiovanni, Gary J., 2023. "Cognitive adaptability’s impact on entrepreneurial intent: The mediating roles of entrepreneurial passion and efficacy," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    8. Ana Dias Daniel & Shahzada Adeel & Anabela Botelho, 2021. "Entrepreneurial Alertness Research: Past and Future," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(3), pages 21582440211, September.
    9. Xuemei Xie & Jiuchang Lv, 2016. "Social networks of female tech-entrepreneurs and new venture performance: the moderating effects of entrepreneurial alertness and gender discrimination," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 12(4), pages 963-983, December.
    10. Healey, Mark P. & Bleda, Mercedes & Querbes, Adrien, 2021. "Opportunity evaluation in teams: A social cognitive model," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 36(4).
    11. Dorian Boumedjaoud & Karim Messeghem, 2019. "L'influence de la créativité sur la vigilance entrepreneuriale des repreneurs de PME," Post-Print hal-02570575, HAL.
    12. Santos-Álvarez, Valle & García-Merino, Teresa, 2010. "The role of the entrepreneur in identifying international expansion as a strategic opportunity," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 512-520.
    13. Dorian Boumedjaoud & Karim Messeghem, 2020. "Vigilance entrepreneuriale du repreneur externe et mentorat : rôle de l'accompagnement en amont," Post-Print hal-02569210, HAL.
    14. Ludvig Levasseur & Jintong Tang & Masoud Karami & Lowell Busenitz & K. Michele Kacmar, 2022. "Increasing alertness to new opportunities: the influence of positive affect and implications for innovation," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 39(1), pages 27-49, March.
    15. Franczak, Jennifer & Lanivich, Stephen E. & Adomako, Samuel, 2023. "Filling institutional voids: Combinative effects of institutional shortcomings and gender on the alertness – Opportunity recognition relationship," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 155(PB).
    16. Peter Vogel, 2017. "From Venture Idea to Venture Opportunity," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 41(6), pages 943-971, November.
    17. Dev K. Dutta & Mary M. Crossan, 2005. "The Nature of Entrepreneurial Opportunities: Understanding the Process Using the 4I Organizational Learning Framework," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 29(4), pages 425-449, July.
    18. Jeff Y-J Chen & Boris Urban, 2018. "Behavioral and Environmental Influences on Entrepreneurial Orientation," Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, AMH International, vol. 10(5), pages 73-88.
    19. Nerine Mary George & Vinit Parida & Tom Lahti & Joakim Wincent, 2016. "A systematic literature review of entrepreneurial opportunity recognition: insights on influencing factors," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 12(2), pages 309-350, June.
    20. Ozgen, Eren & Baron, Robert A., 2007. "Social sources of information in opportunity recognition: Effects of mentors, industry networks, and professional forums," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 174-192, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Self-efficacy; metacognitive knowledge; metacognitive experience; entrepreneurial intention; higher education;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:vrs:zirebs:v:23:y:2020:i:s1:p:1-12:n:1001. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.sciendo.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.