Examining the Characteristics of Academic Entrepreneurs: The Case of Malaysian Technology Driven University

With resources of MYR 564 million being invested on research and development in 2020 by the Malaysia government, it is crucial for Malaysian universities to develop an entrepreneurial ecosystem among academia. This is more significant among technical driven universities. The aim of this study is to examine the various factors that lead technology researchers to recognise and create opportunities. The case study is derived from one of Malaysia’s technology driven universities. This research adopts a qualitative method in which the data were collected from nine lecturers and researchers who were actively involved in creating innovative products and services. Semi-structured interviews and observational methods were employed with six of the respondents. In this study, an exploratory research is selected to ask open questions, in order to find out the challenges and processes of academia in shaping entrepreneurial characteristics. Qualified respondents that is directly involved in the subject of study is selected. These participants are selected academics and researchers from technology management and engineering academic backgrounds. The findings show that networking was used to get resources, and opportunities were from the policy or government interventions and events such as seminars and conferences. Most of the respondents indicate that events are great opportunities to connect with the industry and external parties. Through extensive networking, technology researchers can build various programs for new researchers so that they realize the importance of opportunities, especially in the field of technology, as it is now booming. The implication of this study reflects the university’s effort that can be viewed from the case, where self-efficacy and risk taking can be further promoted among academics who are moving from research to business venture. For the study to be conducted in the future, the researcher suggests the need to obtain a better understanding of conditions of uncertainty which shape opportunity creation and the scope of the research must be extended to other aspects. Future research should also include other institutions to see clearly the role of opportunity creation and the challenges faced by them.

The too-much-of-a-good-thing effect of new ventures' opportunity development on innovation strategy under the Chinese context

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to reveal how to improve the quality of entrepreneurship by exploring the key factor, opportunity development, impacting the innovation strategy of new ventures. It also introduces political and business ties as moderating variables to reveal the uniqueness of entrepreneurial activities in the Chinese context.Design/methodology/approachEmpirical data from 215 entrepreneurs and top executives in Chinese new ventures were gathered through a survey and the statistical method used is the regression model.FindingsThe empirical results indicate that: (1) new ventures' opportunity creation positively impacts innovation strategy, while opportunity discovery has a curvilinear (inverted U-shape) impact on innovation strategy; (2) the relationship between opportunity development and innovation strategy is moderated by political and business ties.Originality/valueThis research analyzes and compares the effect of opportunity discovery and opportunity creation on new ventures' innovation strategy. This research further offers an in-depth understanding of the influence mechanism between opportunity development and innovation strategy among Chinese new ventures. Further, the results provide practical guidance for new ventures to develop innovation strategies and for Chinese governments to make entrepreneurial policies.

Expanding knowledge frontiers in entrepreneurship: examining bricolage and effectuation

PurposeOur purpose is to evaluate effectuation and bricolage through their unique and shared references to understand possible overlaps and conceptual complementarities between these theoretical approaches.Design/methodology/approachThe use of bibliometric techniques to examining simultaneously both theoretical approaches is one of the distinctions of this work. Another important methodological feature is the use of co-citation and bibliographic coupling and their interaction, to verify 179 published documents relating to their references.FindingsThe study reveals the intellectual structures underlying the approaches and differences originating from their knowledge bases, as well as the research trends.Originality/valueBy identifying the differences in the decision process and behaviors that culminate in opportunity creation in each, it offers a complementary vision of previous works. The evidence stresses it is interesting to explore their integration, considering the complementarity of their unique aspects.

Understanding the Roles of Effectuation and Bricolage in the Opportunity Creation Framework

The process of entrepreneurship is identifying and exploiting opportunities. Entrepreneurial action can also result in forming, rather than merely encountering opportunities. Researchers, like Alvarez and Barney (2007), also distinguish two approaches to entrepreneurial action, discovery and creation. In opportunity creation, opportunities for entrepreneurial profit are formed endogenously through action.Effectuation processes focus on what can be done, given the capacity to influence and means at hand, to move toward a future endpoint. Effectuation was developed in the context of entrepreneurship and it assumes that an opportunity may arise through control-based strategies.Bricolage was initially described by Levi-Strauss (1967) as ‘making do with what’s on hand’. This was extended by Baker and Nelson (2005) and applied to the process of value creation. They observed that some entrepreneurs prefer to engage in a process of “making do by applying combinations of resources at hand to new problems and opportunities”.These are new concepts to most entrepreneurship researchers, yet extremely useful in the understanding of opportunity creation. This conceptual paper will assist in the understanding of these concepts, and clarify the roles of effectuation and bricolage in the opportunity creation framework. A discussion section should attempt to bring the concepts to reality by highlighting realistic examples.

How design practices assist new venture teams in creating entrepreneurial opportunities

Research at the intersection of business and design has focused extensively on examining the importance of design for innovation. In this conceptual article, we explore the less considered topic of design for entrepreneurship. We start from the premise that there are similarities in the context in which designers solve problems and entrepreneurs create opportunities and that designers enact certain routinized ways of working that may enable the creation of entrepreneurial opportunities. The main contribution of this article is that we propose a conceptual framework and formulate six propositions depicting the ways in which design practices can enable three antecedents of successful opportunity creation: the ability to generate ideas, the ability to change opportunity beliefs, and the ability to take action.