IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbvent/v25y2010i1p138-154.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

To thine own self be true: Images of self, images of opportunity, and entrepreneurial action

Author

Listed:
  • Mitchell, J. Robert
  • Shepherd, Dean A.

Abstract

While research in entrepreneurship continues to increase general understanding of the opportunity-recognition process, questions about its nature nonetheless persist. In this study, we seek to complement recent research that relates "the self" to the opportunity-recognition process by deepening understanding of the self vis-à-vis this process. We do this by drawing on the self-representation literature and the decision-making literature to introduce two distinct types of images of self: images of vulnerability and images of capability. In a study of 1936 decisions about hypothetical entrepreneurial opportunities made by 121 executives of technology firms, we then investigate how both types of images of self affect the images of opportunities that underlie opportunity recognition. Our results indicate that both images of self - vulnerability and capability - impact one's images of opportunity.

Suggested Citation

  • Mitchell, J. Robert & Shepherd, Dean A., 2010. "To thine own self be true: Images of self, images of opportunity, and entrepreneurial action," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 138-154, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbvent:v:25:y:2010:i:1:p:138-154
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0883-9026(08)00100-6
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Deniz Ucbasaran & Paul Westhead & Mike Wright, 2001. "The Focus of Entrepreneurial Research: Contextual and Process Issues," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 25(4), pages 57-80, July.
    2. Norris F. Krueger Jr. & Deborah V. Brazeal, 1994. "Entrepreneurial Potential and Potential Entrepreneurs," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 18(3), pages 91-104, April.
    3. Danny Miller & Peter H. Friesen, 1982. "Innovation in conservative and entrepreneurial firms: Two models of strategic momentum," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 3(1), pages 1-25, January.
    4. Ikujiro Nonaka, 1994. "A Dynamic Theory of Organizational Knowledge Creation," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 5(1), pages 14-37, February.
    5. Melissa A. Schilling & H. Kevin Steensma, 2002. "Disentangling the Theories of Firm Boundaries: A Path Model and Empirical Test," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 13(4), pages 387-401, August.
    6. Rita Gunther McGrath & Atul Nerkar, 2004. "Real options reasoning and a new look at the R&D investment strategies of pharmaceutical firms," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(1), pages 1-21, January.
    7. Evan J. Douglas & Dean A. Shepherd, 2002. "Self-Employment as a Career Choice: Attitudes, Entrepreneurial Intentions, and Utility Maximization," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 26(3), pages 81-90, April.
    8. Jeffrey G. Covin & Kimberly M. Green & Dennis P. Slevin, 2006. "Strategic Process Effects on the Entrepreneurial Orientation–Sales Growth Rate Relationship," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 30(1), pages 57-81, January.
    9. Richard P. Rumelt & Dan Schendel & David J. Teece, 1991. "Strategic management and economics," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(S2), pages 5-29, December.
    10. Davidsson, Per & Honig, Benson, 2003. "The role of social and human capital among nascent entrepreneurs," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 301-331, May.
    11. Norris Krueger, 1993. "The Impact of Prior Entrepreneurial Exposure on Perceptions of New Venture Feasibility and Desirability," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 18(1), pages 5-21, October.
    12. Mitchell, Terence R. & Beach, Lee Roy, 1990. ""... Do i love thee? Let me count ..." toward an understanding of intuitive and automatic decision making," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 1-20, October.
    13. Cooper, Arnold C. & Woo, Carolyn Y. & Dunkelberg, William C., 1988. "Entrepreneurs' perceived chances for success," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 3(2), pages 97-108.
    14. Nancy G. Boyd & George S. Vozikis, 1994. "The Influence of Self-Efficacy on the Development of Entrepreneurial Intentions and Actions," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 18(4), pages 63-77, July.
    15. Michael Haynie & Dean A. Shepherd, 2009. "A Measure of Adaptive Cognition for Entrepreneurship Research," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 33(3), pages 695-714, May.
    16. Moore, Don A., 2004. "Myopic prediction, self-destructive secrecy, and the unexpected benefits of revealing final deadlines in negotiation," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 94(2), pages 125-139, July.
    17. Robert A. Baron & Michael D. Ensley, 2006. "Opportunity Recognition as the Detection of Meaningful Patterns: Evidence from Comparisons of Novice and Experienced Entrepreneurs," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(9), pages 1331-1344, September.
    18. Ingemar Dierickx & Karel Cool, 1989. "Asset Stock Accumulation and Sustainability of Competitive Advantage," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 35(12), pages 1504-1511, December.
    19. Avinash K. Dixit & Robert S. Pindyck, 1994. "Investment under Uncertainty," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 5474.
    20. Norris F. Krueger Jr., 2000. "The Cognitive Infrastructure of Opportunity Emergence," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 24(3), pages 5-24, April.
    21. Ozgen, Eren & Baron, Robert A., 2007. "Social sources of information in opportunity recognition: Effects of mentors, industry networks, and professional forums," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 174-192, March.
    22. Hean Tat Keh & Maw Der Foo & Boon Chong Lim, 2002. "Opportunity Evaluation under Risky Conditions: The Cognitive Processes of Entrepreneurs," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 27(2), pages 125-148, April.
    23. Baron, Robert A. & Markman, Gideon D., 2003. "Beyond social capital: the role of entrepreneurs' social competence in their financial success," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 41-60, January.
    24. Charles A. Campbell, 1992. "A Decision Theory Model for Entrepreneurial Acts," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 17(1), pages 21-27, October.
    25. Dean A. Shepherd, 1999. "Venture Capitalists' Assessment of New Venture Survival," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 45(5), pages 621-632, May.
    26. Chen, Chao C. & Greene, Patricia Gene & Crick, Ann, 1998. "Does entrepreneurial self-efficacy distinguish entrepreneurs from managers?," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 295-316, July.
    27. Shepherd, Dean A. & Zacharakis, Andrew & Baron, Robert A., 2003. "VCs' decision processes: Evidence suggesting more experience may not always be better," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 381-401, May.
    28. G. Page West III, 2007. "Collective Cognition: When Entrepreneurial Teams, Not Individuals, Make Decisions," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 31(1), pages 77-102, January.
    29. Scott Shane, 2000. "Prior Knowledge and the Discovery of Entrepreneurial Opportunities," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 11(4), pages 448-469, August.
    30. Baron, Robert A., 1998. "Cognitive mechanisms in entrepreneurship: why and when enterpreneurs think differently than other people," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 275-294, July.
    31. Ingemar Dierickx & Karel Cool, 1989. "Asset Stock Accumulation and the Sustainability of Competitive Advantage: Reply," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 35(12), pages 1514-1514, December.
    32. Corbett, Andrew C., 2007. "Learning asymmetries and the discovery of entrepreneurial opportunities," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 97-118, January.
    33. Dimov, Dimo P. & Shepherd, Dean A., 2005. "Human capital theory and venture capital firms: exploring "home runs" and "strike outs"," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 1-21, January.
    34. Cooper, Arnold C. & Gimeno-Gascon, F. Javier & Woo, Carolyn Y., 1994. "Initial human and financial capital as predictors of new venture performance," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 9(5), pages 371-395, September.
    35. Paul C. Nutt, 1998. "How Decision Makers Evaluate Alternatives and the Influence of Complexity," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 44(8), pages 1148-1166, August.
    36. Richard A. Bettis, 1991. "Strategic Management and the Straightjacket: An Editorial Essay," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 2(3), pages 315-319, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Erik Lundmark & Anna Krzeminska & Dean A. Shepherd, 2019. "Images of Entrepreneurship: Exploring Root Metaphors and Expanding Upon Them," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 43(1), pages 138-170, January.
    2. Andranik Tumasjan & Isabell Welpe & Matthias Spörrle, 2013. "Easy Now, Desirable Later: The Moderating Role of Temporal Distance in Opportunity Evaluation and Exploitation," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 37(4), pages 859-888, July.
    3. J. Michael Haynie & Dean A. Shepherd & Jeffery S. McMullen, 2009. "An Opportunity for Me? The Role of Resources in Opportunity Evaluation Decisions," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(3), pages 337-361, May.
    4. Tumasjan, Andranik & Braun, Reiner, 2012. "In the eye of the beholder: How regulatory focus and self-efficacy interact in influencing opportunity recognition," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 622-636.
    5. Fitzsimmons, Jason R. & Douglas, Evan J., 2011. "Interaction between feasibility and desirability in the formation of entrepreneurial intentions," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 431-440, July.
    6. Frederiks, Arjan J. & Englis, Basil G. & Ehrenhard, Michel L. & Groen, Aard J., 2019. "Entrepreneurial cognition and the quality of new venture ideas: An experimental approach to comparing future-oriented cognitive processes," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 327-347.
    7. Douglas, Evan J., 2013. "Reconstructing entrepreneurial intentions to identify predisposition for growth," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 28(5), pages 633-651.
    8. James C. Hayton & Magdalena Cholakova, 2012. "The Role of Affect in the Creation and Intentional Pursuit of Entrepreneurial Ideas," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 36(1), pages 41-67, January.
    9. Mohd Yasir Arafat & Imran Saleem & Amit Kumar Dwivedi & Adil Khan, 2020. "Determinants of agricultural entrepreneurship: a GEM data based study," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 345-370, March.
    10. Blume, Brian D. & Covin, Jeffrey G., 2011. "Attributions to intuition in the venture founding process: Do entrepreneurs actually use intuition or just say that they do?," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 137-151, January.
    11. Marvel, Matthew R. & Wolfe, Marcus T. & Kuratko, Donald F., 2020. "Escaping the knowledge corridor: How founder human capital and founder coachability impacts product innovation in new ventures," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 35(6).
    12. Dominic S.K. Lim & Eric A. Morse & Ronald K. Mitchell & Kristie K. Seawright, 2010. "Institutional Environment and Entrepreneurial Cognitions: A Comparative Business Systems Perspective," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 34(3), pages 491-516, May.
    13. Eric Gedajlovic & Benson Honig & Curt B. Moore & G. Tyge Payne & Mike Wright, 2013. "Social Capital and Entrepreneurship: A Schema and Research Agenda," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 37(3), pages 455-478, May.
    14. Heinrichs, Simon & Walter, Sascha, 2013. "Who Becomes an Entrepreneur? A 30-Years-Review of Individual-Level Research and an Agenda for Future Research," EconStor Preprints 68590, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    15. Emre Şahin Dölarslan & Akin Koçak & Alper Özer, 2017. "“Bats Are Blind?” Cognitive Biases In Risk Perception Of Entrepreneurs," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 22(03), pages 1-13, September.
    16. Bhawe, Nachiket & Rawhouser, Hans & Pollack, Jeffrey M., 2016. "Horse and cart: The role of resource acquisition order in new ventures," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 6(C), pages 7-13.
    17. Shepherd, Dean A. & Haynie, J. Michael & McMullen, Jeffery S., 2012. "Confirmatory search as a useful heuristic? testing the veracity of entrepreneurial conjectures," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 637-651.
    18. Dirk Dohse & Sascha G. Walter, 2010. "The role of entrepreneurship education and regional context in forming entrepreneurial intentions," Working Papers 2010/18, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    19. Poonam Khanna & Lemaro Thompson & Michael Mcdonald, 2015. "Research On Venture Capital Firms’ ‘Investment Behavior A Review’," Working Papers 0197mgt, College of Business, University of Texas at San Antonio.
    20. Ucbasaran, Deniz & Westhead, Paul & Wright, Mike, 2009. "The extent and nature of opportunity identification by experienced entrepreneurs," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 99-115, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbvent:v:25:y:2010:i:1:p:138-154. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusvent .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.