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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 study has investigated the effects of strategic alliances on the performance of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) of the industry of automotive parts manufacturers. Questionnaires have been distributed among 400 senior managers of SMEs of the industry of auto parts manufacturers based on stratified random sampling. The data has been analyzed using structural equation modeling software and PLS2 software in two segments of measurement model and structural model. In the first segment, technical features of the questionnaire were tested in terms of reliability and validity. Moreover, in the second segment, t-test was used to test research hypotheses. The results show that there is a significant and positive relationship between the dimensions of strategic alliances, including new opportunities, entrepreneurial and innovative capabilities, social capital, and internationalization of business, and competitive advantage with the performance of SMEs.

Erratum After publication, it was highlighted that the manuscript: 'Identification the main challenges of small and medium sized enterprises in exploiting of innovative opportunities (Case study: Iran SMEs)' (Farsi and Toghraee 2014) contained a typing error in the title. The correct title is: 'Identification of the main challenges of small and medium sized enterprises in exploiting innovative opportunities (Case study: Iran SMEs)'.

The pace of innovation continues to increase not only in the developed world but also in developed markets. The key issue facing many small medium-sized enterprises is related to how they can foster effective innovation. Innovation in SMEs can be (more) efficient and effective; however, this is not the case in many SMEs. SMEs in Iran are industrial and service enterprises with less than 50 employees, because of their size and resource limitations, they are unable to develop new technologies or to make vital changes in the existing ones. The aim of this study is to identify the most important challenges of small and medium businesses a in exploitation of innovation opportunities. We used the exploratory factor analysis which demonstrated the following six challenges in the order of importance: managerial and human resource; research and development; technologies, national policy and regulatory environment and lack of market information.

Prior research highlighted the importance of an organisational context stimulating autonomous behaviour when trying to increase levels of corporate entrepreneurship. From a social exchange perspective, we argue that firms in developing countries need to complement such supportive practices with performance-oriented practices. Our findings indicate that Iranian firms with an organisational context characterised by an interaction of social context and performance management have more engagement in corporate entrepreneurship, and that corporate entrepreneurship mediated the relationship between the organisational context and firm performance. This provides a better understanding of the way firms in developing economies can shape their organisational context to promote corporate entrepreneurship in order to achieve better firm performance.

This study addresses the way small and medium enterprises in developing countries can fill their knowledge gaps to enhance their level of corporate entrepreneurship. Our observation of a sample of 126 (doublerespondent questionnaires) small and medium supplier firms providing products and services to the mining industry in Iran indicate that firms with more business partners have more engagement in corporate entrepreneurship. Yet, this connection is conditional to the firm's network management capabilities. In particular, relational governance plays an important role in the effective use of business partners for corporate entrepreneurship. Our findings suggest that the increased number of business partners in tandem with network management capabilities can promote corporate entrepreneurship in developing countries.