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.
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)'.
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