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Purpose In order to answer which opportunities are better to pursue, the purpose of this paper is to propose and empirically test a decision-making model for evaluating and selecting entrepreneurial opportunities. Design/methodology/approach First, the authors identified common evaluation criteria through a systematic review of 45 high quality articles published in top entrepreneurship and management journals between 2000 and 2017. Second, fuzzy screening technique has been employed to offer the decision-making model. Third, the authors used data of six evaluations provided by five experts at a medium-sized biotech firm to test the model. Findings The study shows that common decision criteria for evaluating entrepreneurial opportunities fall into seven categories. According to these criteria and using fuzzy screening technique, a multi-expert multi-criteria decision-making (ME–MCDM) model has been suggested for evaluating and selecting opportunities. Practical implications This model can be served in situations in which decision makers should select a small number of opportunities among the larger set with regard to opportunity profile and minimal information. More opportunities and more decision makers can be included in the model. When the number of opportunities and decision makers are high, it is possible to use programming for fast, accurate and easy calculation. Originality/value This study is the first systematic review of opportunity evaluation criteria. It is also the first considering opportunity evaluation as a multi-expert decision-making process.

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This paper presents the results of a study on the Performance implications of Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) at fifteen research centers within three public research and technology institutions (RTIs) in energy industry of Iran. Considering the sensitivity of EO construct to specific contexts, we initially developed a new scale to measure the EO of research centers; and then, investigated its consequences. Different latent interaction and multiple regression techniques were employed to investigate the effects of EO on performance indices of research centers from universalistic and contingency perspectives. It was concluded that EO has the strongest positive effect on financial performance of research centers, when they are dealing with unfavorable environmental conditions.

Many believe that traditional models and traditional theories of identifying and exploiting opportunities in such situations do not have the required efficiency since they act linearly and require nonlinear models to identify and exploit these opportunities. Henceforth, adapting compatible and innovative strategies are necessary to meet the changing needs of customers as well as environmental uncertainties. In this research, while studying existing theories about technological entrepreneurship opportunities, a theoretical gap was studied. The study showed that there are several questions that have not been addressed in existing theories and more research should be done to answer these questions and to fill the theories gap.