IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wsi/jdexxx/v23y2018i02ns1084946718500103.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Effectuation And Opportunity Recognition In The Renewable Energy Sector In South Africa: A Focus On Environmental Dynamism And Hostility

Author

Listed:
  • BORIS URBAN

    (Wits Business School, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, P. O. Box 98, Wits 2050, South Africa)

Abstract

Effectuation is well suited to broaden our understanding of opportunity recognition because effectual processes are related to recognizing and exploiting opportunities in new markets under conditions of uncertainty. This article investigates the relationship between effectuation and opportunity recognition, while at the same time, accounting for the influence of environmental dynamism and hostility in an African emerging market context — South Africa. In so doing, the paper responds directly to calls for research to emphasize the importance of environmental conditions while placing more attention on quantifying its influences on the opportunity recognition process. Following a survey of 302 enterprises in the renewable energy sector in South Africa, results indicate that entrepreneurs apply effectual principles to recognize and exploit more opportunities while operating in dynamic and hostile surroundings. By explaining the relationships and interactions between effectuation, the environment and opportunity recognition in an African market context, the study provides a more theoretically comprehensive configuration than any of these factors would show in isolation.

Suggested Citation

  • Boris Urban, 2018. "Effectuation And Opportunity Recognition In The Renewable Energy Sector In South Africa: A Focus On Environmental Dynamism And Hostility," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 23(02), pages 1-17, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:wsi:jdexxx:v:23:y:2018:i:02:n:s1084946718500103
    DOI: 10.1142/S1084946718500103
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S1084946718500103
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1142/S1084946718500103?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Norris F. Krueger Jr., 2007. "What Lies Beneath? The Experiential Essence of Entrepreneurial Thinking," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 31(1), pages 123-138, January.
    2. Robert E. Hoskisson & Mike Wright & Igor Filatotchev & Mike W. Peng, 2013. "Emerging Multinationals from Mid-Range Economies: The Influence of Institutions and Factor Markets," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(7), pages 1295-1321, November.
    3. 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.
    4. Boris Urban, 2017. "Corporate Entrepreneurship In South Africa: The Role Of Organizational Factors And Entrepreneurial Alertness In Advancing Innovativeness," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 22(03), pages 1-20, September.
    5. H. Igor Ansoff, 1987. "The emerging paradigm of strategic behavior," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 8(6), pages 501-515, November.
    6. Patrick J. Murphy, 2011. "A 2 × 2 Conceptual Foundation for Entrepreneurial Discovery Theory," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 35(2), pages 359-374, March.
    7. Danny Miller & Peter H. Friesen, 1982. "Innovation in conservative and entrepreneurial firms: Two models of strategic momentum," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 3(1), pages 1-25, January.
    8. Israel M. Kirzner, 1997. "Entrepreneurial Discovery and the Competitive Market Process: An Austrian Approach," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 35(1), pages 60-85, March.
    9. Dew, Nicholas & Read, Stuart & Sarasvathy, Saras D. & Wiltbank, Robert, 2009. "Effectual versus predictive logics in entrepreneurial decision-making: Differences between experts and novices," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 287-309, July.
    10. Danny Miller, 1983. "The Correlates of Entrepreneurship in Three Types of Firms," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(7), pages 770-791, July.
    11. Luthans, Fred & Stajkovic, Alexander D. & Ibrayeva, Elina, 2000. "Environmental and psychological challenges facing entrepreneurial development in transitional economies," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 95-110, April.
    12. Cevahir Uzkurt & Rachna Kumar & Halil Semih Kimzan & Hanife Sert, 2012. "THE IMPACT OF ENVIRONMENTAL UNCERTAINTY DIMENSIONS ON ORGANISATIONAL INNOVATIVENESS: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY ON SMEs," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 16(02), pages 1-23.
    13. Shaker A. Zahra, 1993. "A Conceptual Model of Entrepreneurship as Firm Behavior: A Critique and Extension," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 17(4), pages 5-21, July.
    14. Mark Freel, 2005. "Perceived Environmental Uncertainty and Innovation in Small Firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 49-64, August.
    15. Chandler, Gaylen N. & DeTienne, Dawn R. & McKelvie, Alexander & Mumford, Troy V., 2011. "Causation and effectuation processes: A validation study," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 375-390, May.
    16. Shanshan Qian & Dalong Ma & Chao Miao, 2016. "Deciding To Discover Entrepreneurial Opportunities: A Multi-Level Investigation Based On Informational Economics And Resource Dependence Theory," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 21(02), pages 1-19, June.
    17. Saras D. Sarasvathy & Sankaran Venkataraman, 2011. "Entrepreneurship as Method: Open Questions for an Entrepreneurial Future," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 35(1), pages 113-135, January.
    18. 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.
    19. Jeffrey G. Covin & Dennis P. Slevin, 1989. "Strategic management of small firms in hostile and benign environments," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(1), pages 75-87, January.
    20. 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.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Saras Sarasvathy, 2023. "Questions worth asking for futures worth making: an effectual approach," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 61(1), pages 11-21, June.

    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. 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.
    2. Erik Lundmark & Anna Krzeminska & Dean A. Shepherd, 2019. "Images of Entrepreneurship: Exploring Root Metaphors and Expanding Upon Them," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 43(1), pages 138-170, January.
    3. Jeffery S. McMullen & Katrina M. Brownell & Joel Adams, 2021. "What Makes an Entrepreneurship Study Entrepreneurial? Toward A Unified Theory of Entrepreneurial Agency," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 45(5), pages 1197-1238, September.
    4. Ana Dias Daniel & Shahzada Adeel & Anabela Botelho, 2021. "Entrepreneurial Alertness Research: Past and Future," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(3), pages 21582440211, September.
    5. Steffen Korsgaard & Henrik Berglund & Claus Thrane & Per Blenker, 2016. "A Tale of Two Kirzners: Time, Uncertainty, and the “Nature†of Opportunities," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 40(4), pages 867-889, July.
    6. Francisco Javier Forcadell & Fernando Úbeda, 2022. "Individual entrepreneurial orientation and performance: the mediating role of international entrepreneurship," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 875-900, June.
    7. 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.
    8. 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.
    9. Strobl, Andreas & Bauer, Florian & Matzler, Kurt, 2020. "The impact of industry-wide and target market environmental hostility on entrepreneurial leadership in mergers and acquisitions," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 55(2).
    10. Patrick Kreiser & Louis Marino & Donald Kuratko & K. Weaver, 2013. "Disaggregating entrepreneurial orientation: the non-linear impact of innovativeness, proactiveness and risk-taking on SME performance," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 40(2), pages 273-291, February.
    11. 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.
    12. Jain, Rajesh & Mendonca, Valerie & Vohra, Neharika & Sharma, Supriya, 2018. "Does Entrepreneurial Logic Impact Funding Evaluation of Startups?," IIMA Working Papers wp 2018-02-01, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Research and Publication Department.
    13. Jeffrey G. Covin & Kimberly M. Green & Dennis P. Slevin, 2006. "Strategic Process Effects on the Entrepreneurial Orientation–Sales Growth Rate Relationship," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 30(1), pages 57-81, January.
    14. 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).
    15. Johan Wiklund, 1999. "The Sustainability of the Entrepreneurial Orientation—Performance Relationship," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 24(1), pages 37-48, October.
    16. Denis A. Grégoire & Martin X. Noël & Richard Déry & Jean–Pierre Béchard, 2006. "Is There Conceptual Convergence in Entrepreneurship Research? A Co–Citation Analysis of Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research, 1981–2004," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 30(3), pages 333-373, May.
    17. Jeffrey G. Covin & Morgan P. Miles, 1999. "Corporate Entrepreneurship and the Pursuit of Competitive Advantage," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 23(3), pages 47-63, April.
    18. 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.
    19. Yi‐Chun Huang & Li‐Ting Shih & Zhao‐Hong Cheng, 2024. "A multi‐level analysis of individual green entrepreneurial orientation: Evidence from Taiwan's environmental protection sectors," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(4), pages 3440-3462, May.
    20. Maria Glinyanova & Ricarda B. Bouncken & Victor Tiberius & Antonio C. Cuenca Ballester, 2021. "Five decades of corporate entrepreneurship research: measuring and mapping the field," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 1731-1757, December.

    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:wsi:jdexxx:v:23:y:2018:i:02:n:s1084946718500103. 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: Tai Tone Lim (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.worldscinet.com/jde/jde.shtml .

    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.