How entrepreneurs recognise entrepreneurial opportunity and its gaps: a cognitive theory perspective

Previous studies have verified the relationship between entrepreneurial opportunity recognition and performance. However, the influences of a perceived gap between entrepreneurial opportunities before and after launching a new venture have been neglected. This study applied the partial least square method to analyse the entrepreneurial behaviours and performance of 214 Taiwanese new ventures, and adapted the bootstrap re-sampling method for estimating the variables. The empirical results showed that entrepreneurial resource and entrepreneurial alertness significantly influence the perceived opportunity, while the entrepreneurial resource significantly affects the actual opportunity. The results further demonstrated that both the perceived opportunity and actual opportunity considerably influence new venture performance. This study offered a research framework to better understand the cognition path of entrepreneurial opportunity, and suggested the factors affecting the recognition of perceived opportunity by longitudinal method can be further evaluated. To improve performance, entrepreneurs should enrich entrepreneurial resources and allocate them appropriately, and heighten and maintain their alertness to reduce the perceived gap arising from recognising entrepreneurial opportunities.