While opportunity recognition is in the focus of many studies, we still know little about which factors influence the quality of the opportunity recognition performance in entrepreneurial teams.
First, existing research has found a positive effect of human capital experience on the number of opportunities recog-nized (e.g., Gruber et al., 2008; 2012; Ucbasaran et al., 2008). In addition, studies have also found a positive relationship between human capital and the quality of an opportunity, conceptualized as innovativeness (Ucbasaran et al., 2009).
Second, the positive influence of opportunity-related experience on the number of recognized opportunities is already supported (Gruber et al., 2013; Shepherd & DeTienne, 2005). In addition, studies have already shown a positive effect of opportunity-related experience on the quality of an opportunity, measured as innovativeness (Shepherd & DeTienne, 2005), or conceptualized as variation between opportunities recognized by an entrepreneurial team (Gruber et al., 2013).
Finally, we know that joint team experience of entrepreneurial teams positively influences venture performance (Ei-senhardt & Schoonhoven, 1990; Roure & Maidique, 1986), but we know little about how joint team experience influ-ences team performance, for example opportunity recognition performance. To the best of my knowledge, prior re-search has thus far not studied the influence of prior joint team experience on opportunity recognition performance, conceptualized neither as a quantitative nor as a qualitative performance measure for opportunity recognition.
In summary, the existing literature provides little insight on how prior experience, namely joint team experience, human capital experience, and opportunity-related experience, affects the quality of the opportunities recognized by entrepre-neurial teams.
While many prior studies focus primarily on the first step of the opportunity process, namely opportunity recognition, the research on opportunity evaluation, and especially on the decision-making aspect of opportunity evaluation, namely the opportunity selection, is still scant (Haynie et al., 2009). Schultz (1959) assumes that the cognitive ability of an entrepreneur, which is necessary for the opportunity evaluation, might be strengthened by a higher educational level.
Kor et al. (2007) argue that prior industry experience might be useful in identifying and evaluating new entrepreneurial opportunities. In summary, based on existing research it is not yet clear how prior experience influences the opportunity selection performance of entrepreneurial teams.
Although the interplay between opportunities and entrepreneurs is subject to many entrepreneurial studies, prior entre-preneurship scholars have already borrowed insights from related literature streams, for example from the creativity literature, in order to advance the understanding of opportunity recognition and selection (e.g., Perry-Smith & Coff, 2011). The intuitive link between creativity and entrepreneurship (Dimov, 2007) enables the application of creativity-based insights to the entrepreneurial context. In a creative context, opportunity recognition and selection is seen as idea generation and selection (e.g., Berg, 2016; Girotra, Terwiesch, & Ulrich, 2010). In the present work, I draw on insights from creative literature streams, namely the idea generation and the creative forecasting literature stream, both of which study the generation and selection of ideas. Two insights that are already anchored in these creativity literature streams are crucial for the present work: First, scholars acknowledge the importance of examining the performance in both phases, in the idea generation as well as in the idea selection phase, to gain a complete understanding of the team's performance, while they suggest measuring the performance in the respective phase separately. Second, the quality of an idea, conceptualized as business value, should determine the assessment of the quality, while the ability to discern the best idea out of the identified idea set should be the performance measure for the selection of ideas (Berg, 2016;
Girotra et al., 2010). In the present study, I apply these two insights to the entrepreneurial context to gain a better understanding of the opportunity recognition and selection performance in entrepreneurial teams.
Despite many prior studies on entrepreneurial opportunities, as well as helpful insights from the creativity literature, our knowledge about the influence of prior experience on the quality of the recognized opportunities and the quality of the selection of one opportunity out of the recognized opportunity set is limited. Specifically, we do not sufficiently understand the conditions that hinder or facilitate entrepreneurial teams' achievement of a high performance based on their prior experience.
We already know that prior experience is crucial for the opportunity recognition process (e.g., Gruber et al., 2013;
Ucbasaran et al., 2009). More specifically, it is not only the available prior experience that determines the result of the
opportunity recognition process, but also the ability of an entrepreneurial team to use that experience (Taylor & Greve, 2006). An entrepreneurial team's ability to use its available experience might be influenced by the social context, which plays an important role in entrepreneurial activities (Davidsson & Honig, 2003). So far, we do not know how the op-portunity recognition process is influenced by the social context. One crucial factor describing the social context in an entrepreneurial team is trust (Welter & Smallbone, 2006), and intra-team trust is essential for entrepreneurial teams (Klotz et al., 2014). Thus, intra-team trust in entrepreneurial teams, which refers to the shared general cognition of trust in their team members (DeJong & Elfring, 2010, p. 536), might influence the ability of team members to use their prior experience to recognize and select opportunities. Dirks and Ferrin (2001) suggest that intra-team trust should rather be considered a facilitating or hindering condition for team performance than a main input factor. Prior studies on team research have shown that intra-team trust can be a moderating condition for team output (Dirks, 1999), and even a hindering condition for team performance (Langfred, 2004).
We know that trust has diverse benefits for entrepreneurship, as it reduces some risks that are related to entrepreneurial activities and facilitates relationships in the entrepreneurial environment. However, scholars have asked for a more critical perspective on trust in entrepreneurship, including the potential downsides, to achieve a more comprehensive picture of the role of trust in an entrepreneurial context (Welter, 2012). Thus, studies have investigated the negative effects of interpersonal trust from an entrepreneurial perspective (Goel & Karri, 2006; Gordon, 2006), whereby poten-tial downsides of interpersonal trust in the recognition and selection of opportunities have already been identified (Zahra, Yavuz, & Ucbasaran, 2006).
Given all these points, the present thesis intends to deepen our understanding of opportunity recognition and selec-tion, with a specific focus on the quality of the opportunities and the ability to discern the best opportunity. In addi-tion, the influence of prior experience as well as the potentially negative condition of intra-team trust for opportunity recognition and selection is explored.
Figure 1 provides an overview of relevant research calls that motivated the present work, and which I hope to answer at least partially in the present study. With regard to opportunity recognition and selection, scholars have suggested to focus more on the nature of opportunity recognition than simply on the number of recognized opportunities (Ucbasaran et al., 2009). This approach includes the relevance of opportunity sets out of which an entrepreneurial team has to select the best opportunity (Gruber et al., 2008) and examines facilitating or hindering conditions for opportunity recognition (Grégoire et al., 2010). In addition, scholars have asked for additional research examining the influence of prior rience on opportunity recognition (Ucbasaran et al., 2009), to differentiate between different dimensions of prior expe-rience (Shepherd & DeTienne, 2005) and to better understand the role of human capital (Haynie et al., 2009). According to prior studies, future research on intra-team trust should be more context-specific (DeJong & Elfring, 2010) should focus more on trust as a condition that hinders or facilitates the relationship between input factors and team performance
(Dirks, 1999) in order to potentially recognize additional relationships for which intra-team trust is a harmful condition (Langfred, 2004). In addition, studies on trust in entrepreneurship should be more critical and should include potential downsides (Welter, 2012).
Figure 1: Overview of relevant research calls Source: Own illustration
Thus, in an attempt to close the outlined research gaps, I try to make significant contributions to the following re-search questions in the present thesis:
1. Which factors influence the quality of the opportunities that are recognized by entrepreneurial teams?
2. Which factors influence the quality of the opportunity selection that is made by entrepreneurial teams?
3. Which role do different prior experience dimensions, namely team experience, human capital experience, and opportunity-related experience of entrepreneurial teams, play for the opportunity recognition and selection performance?
4. Which potentially negative role does intra-team trust play as a condition for the relationship between prior experience and opportunity recognition and selection performance in entrepreneurial teams?