Work

Information Exposure, Opportunity Evaluation and Entrepreneurial Action: An Investigation of an Online User Community

Year: 2013

Type: article

Abstract: We study how an individual's exposure to external information regulates the evaluation of entrepreneurial opportunities and entrepreneurial action. Combining data from interviews, a survey, and a comprehensive web log of an online user community spanning eight years, we find that technical information shaped opportunity evaluation and that social information about user needs drove individuals to entrepreneurial action. Our empirical findings suggest that reducing demand uncertainty is a central factor regulating entrepreneurial action, an insight that received theories of entrepreneurial action have so far overlooked.

Source: Academy of Management Journal

DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.2229393

Authors: Erkko Autio, Linus Dahlander, Lars Frederiksen

Institutions: Tilburg University, Imperial College London, Stanford University, Aarhus University

Language: English

Topic: Entrepreneurship Studies and Influences

Subfield: Management of Technology and Innovation

Field: Business, Management and Accounting

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funder: Economic and Social Research Council

Award: Enterprise Research Centre (ERC)