Opportunity recognition: Perceptions and behaviors of entrepreneurs

The purpose of this paper was to study a greatly overlooked research area - opportunity recognition. We present exploratory results based on data collected from 190 mail survey respondent entrepreneurs. Differences between entrepreneurs who developed their business ideas on their own (solo entrepreneurs) vs. those who got their ideas from their social networks (network entrepreneurs) are found. Using frequency counts, t-tests, and exploratory factor analysis we discuss a number of issues of critical importance to understanding opportunity recognition. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed and topics for future research are identified.