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We apply the prescriptions of the resource-based perspective to develop a model of entrepreneurial opportunity evaluation. We propose that opportunity evaluation decision policies are constructed as future-oriented, cognitive representations of 'what will be', assuming one were to exploit the opportunity under evaluation. These cognitive representations incorporate both (1) an evaluation of the existing resource endowments (already under the control of the venture), which may be employed to exploit the opportunity under evaluation, and at the same time (2) an assessment of the future, wealth generating resources that must be marshalled (and subsequently under the control of the venture) in order to exploit the opportunity under evaluation. We empirically test this model using conjoint analysis and hierarchical linear modelling techniques to decompose more than 2300 opportunity evaluation decisions nested in a sample of 73 entrepreneurs. Our findings suggest that entrepreneurs are attracted to opportunities that are complementary to their existing knowledge resources; however, we also identify a set of opportunity-specific and firm-specific conditions that encourage entrepreneurs to pursue the acquisition and control of resources that are inconsistent with the existing, knowledge-based resources of the venture. We identify these conditions and discuss implications for theory, practice, and future research.

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Drawing on Identity Control Theory (ICT) and the literature on social identity, we offer a model of the dynamics associated with competing family and business identities brought into conflict by "family-business" events. We introduce the notion of the family-business role as a distinct identity functioning at the intersection of family and business identities. This meta-level identity "manages" conflict between the family and the business identities, and is formulated and transformed within the family structure. To illustrate the dynamics of the family-business meta-identity, in this article we focus on entrepreneurial opportunities as potentially identity conflict-triggering events and illustrate how and with what impact the meta-identity works to resolve identity conflict at the intersection of family and business so as to expedite the entrepreneurial process. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of our model. "Other things may change us, but we start and end with family." -Anthony Brandt