EXPLORING THE INFLUENCE OF TASK- SPECIFIC SELF-EFFICACY ON OPPORTUNITY RECOGNITION PERCEPTIONS AND BEHAVIORS

ABSTRACT This paper draws from social cognitive theory using the work of Chen et al. (1998), and Tierney and Farmer (2002) to empirically explore the impact of task-specific self-efficacy on opportunity recognition. The primary objective is to expand upon previous research by DeKoning (1999) and Ozgen (2003) exploring sociocognitive influences of opportunity recognition. Findings from the study indicate that entrepreneurial self-efficacy and creative self-efficacy have a positive relationship with opportunity recognition perceptions, and creative self-efficacy has a positive relationship with opportunity recognition behaviors. Creative self-efficacy was also found to be a more influential predictor of opportunity recognition perceptions and behaviors. INTRODUCTION A centralized theme in recent entrepreneurship literature has been the investigation of the opportunity . Notable entrepreneurship scholars argue that “opportunity” is the core essence of entrepreneurship, although previously overlooked by researchers (Davidsson, 2003; Shane 2000). Shane and Venkataraman (2000, p. 218) ignited a paradigm shift in entrepreneurship research by demarcating their definition of entrepreneurship as “the nexus of two phenomena: the presence of lucrative opportunities and the presence of enterprising individuals”. Shane and Venkataraman’s (2000) conceptual study thrust opportunity and the opportunity recognition process to the forefront of entrepreneurship research. Lumpkin, Hills and Shrader (2001, p. 5) define opportunity recognition as “perceiving a possibility to create new businesses, or significantly improving the position of an existing business” which results in new profit potential. Despite the large stream of contributions made by entrepreneurship researchers, opportunity recognition has been characterized as being fragmented, with disparate, kaleidoscopic models (Davidsson, 2004; Park, 2005). In fact, the field of entrepreneurship is often characterized as lacking an organizing framework and at times, atheoretical. Over the past ten years, entrepreneurship researchers employed diverse theoretical approaches to advance our knowledge of opportunity recognition which include information flow, learning, cognitive, sociocognitive, and social networks (see Baron & Ensley, 2006; Corbett, 2002; DeKoning, 1999; Ozgen, 2003; Singh, 2000). While each theoretical framework has merit and diverging themes are common, very few scholars engage in further development of existing theoretical approaches. Some researchers purport that promising areas for contributions to opportunity recognition research are studies utilizing social cognitive theory (Krueger, 2003; Markman & Baron, 2003; Shaver, 2003). Yet, there is surprisingly little extant empirical research exploring sociocognitive influences on opportunity recognition. Social cognitive theory stems from social psychology and posits that individuals have an ability to influence their own motivation and action through the interaction of cognitive, emotional and other personal and environmental factors. The current research seeks to expand on existing cognitive approaches to opportunity recognition. Prominent studies explore self-efficacy’s influence on new venture creation processes, such as 1Gibbs: EXPLORING THE INFLUENCE OF TASK-SPECIFIC SELF-EFFICACYFrontiers of Entrepreneurship Research 2009