Entrepreneurship For Forming And Exploiting Opportunities

Concept Recognition

Discuss about the Entrepreneurship for Forming and Exploiting Opportunities.

The purpose of this assignment is to analyze the discussion of David Tham’s presentation about the opportunity recognition. This assignment is dedicated to the evaluation of relevant theories and models regarding opportunity recognition. The discussion will establish a link between the presentation and academic theories and models. David Tham is the founder of nanoKnowledge, which is the world’s first “enterprise knowledge brokerage”. Apart from that, David Tham has introduced the world’s first virtual learning centre. The entrepreneur has developed the first knowledge management system and human capital for “Raffles & Swissotel global chains” in 2002. David Tham is known as an author and he has introduced many strategies for social media marketing. The assignment will emphasize on the entrepreneur’s viewpoint about opportunity recognition and its relevancy with the academic models and theories.   

The term opportunity recognition refers to the component, which defines the entrepreneurial process. The ability of an entrepreneur for identifying and utilizing the opportunity is the major factor, which makes an entrepreneur successful (Chandler, 2011). The models and theories of opportunity recognition show that the external environment of the entrepreneur influences the ability of opportunity recognition. Other factors such as business environment, background of the entrepreneur and general environment also influence the characteristics of an entrepreneur. The concept of opportunity for entrepreneurs is to develop new business ideas as per the market demands (Gregoire, Pamela and Dean, 2010). The literature review shows that opportunity recognition is not just limited to introducing a new product; it is about identification of a new business. David Tham has mentioned that an entrepreneur needs to identify personal skills and interest before starting any venture. The business ideas that could facilitate a group of people would be the most innovative process of opportunity recognition (Tang et al., 2012). As per the presentation of David Tham, the entrepreneur has decided to start a business during his poly-technique course. During the period of his studies, David has identified the current market trend for knowledge management. The demand of knowledge management for improving the business framework was potentially high on this time. Here, the theory of knowledge management shows that how an individual should use the market information in order to cope up with innovative business ideas (Ozgen and Robert, 2007).

The theory of Network Cohesiveness suggests that an individual can gain information through communicating with other people (Ardichvili et al., 2003). In this presentation of David Tham, the entrepreneur has mentioned that how he has gained information through his fellow classmates. The process that the entrepreneur mentioned is completely relevant with the network theory. Moreover, the presentation shows that how an individual can exploit the internet in order to gain sufficient information regarding innovation. The nature of information depends on the type of network that an individual belongs (Baron, 2006). Prototype Theory of opportunity recognition suggests that an individual can identify opportunities through experience. Apart from that, this theory suggests that when an individual identified a new business idea, the existing prototype is the factor that influences the opportunity identification (Arenius and Dirk, 2005). In case of David Tham, he has discussed about his personal experience of academic failure. Here, the entrepreneur has also mentioned that he had gone through a phase when he was unable to understand his ability and interest. However, the transition of his interest led him to the world of business. The entrepreneur has developed his business idea of nanoKnowledge. The aim of his business was identified through his personal experience and events. Therefore, it can be said that the entrepreneur has addressed the prototype theory while elaborating opportunity recognition.

Network Cohesiveness

Figure 1: Network Cohesiveness

(Source: Ardichvili et al., 2003)

Opportunity recognition is the key characteristic of an entrepreneur through which an entrepreneur can identify innovative ideas (Baron and Michael, 2006). Theories of opportunity recognition emphasize that an individual should have access to the information in order to implement innovative business ideas (Fisher, 2012). Now, the quality of information depends on the network of the individual. In order to identify the opportunity, an individual should understand the market demand (Alvarez et al., 2013). It requires an extensive market research. An entrepreneur needs to investigate in order to understand the requirements of communities. In this occasion, David Tham has stated that innovation is the only process through which opportunities can be identified. In his presentation, the entrepreneur has mentioned that he has learned new things from his experience. Before starting his own business, David Tham was involved in an IT company as a project manager. Here, he has learned about the project based responsibilities and its outcome. Thereafter, David had decided to come out from that profession and joined hospitality industry.  Here, David emphasizes the importance of experience in order to be able to identify the opportunities. The theory of opportunity recognition focuses on two particular things such as network and experience of an individual. The entrepreneur should utilize experience and network in order to understand the importance of opportunity. The people around an individual can influence the process of opportunity identification.

In business, an entrepreneur should have the ability to identify innovative ideas. Here, the term innovative idea is not limited to the new products or services. It is a completely new business idea that could facilitate people within the community. The demand of a specific service or product among the people needs to be identified. David Tham has discussed about the use of network and experience in opportunity recognition process. He has found the interest in building knowledge management for the organization. The opportunity identification is the process through which the entrepreneur has identified personal interest as well as the market demand of the new business idea (Fiet, 2007). From the literature review, it has been identified that people have post-secondary degree can easily identify opportunities as compare with the people those are not having such degrees (Dew, 2009). Here, the positive effect of education has been evaluated. Study argued that education is the most important factor, which helps an individual to identify opportunities in their professional career (Ronstadt, 1989). However, the presentation of David Tham has contradicted in this aspect. David has mentioned that in his academic career he was unable to cope up with chemistry and physics. Here, the entrepreneur had lost his five years in his academic life. However, he has started his poly-technique diploma after a long time. His fellow classmates were younger than he was (Shane, 2000). However, he found his opportunity at the time of perusing the diploma course. The lesion learn by the entrepreneur was education is important but not the necessary factor opportunity recognition.

Importance of information

From the literature review, it has been noted that people with an active working career have more probability of opportunity identification (Renko et al., 2012). The entrepreneur has mentioned that he has earned lots of experience from his job experiences. The theories suggested that the working environment of an individual helps an individual to identify the opportunity for developing innovative ideas.

Figure 2: Model of Opportunity Recognition

(Source: Alvarez et al., 2013)

Conclusion

While concluding, it can be said that opportunity recognition refers to the process of identifying innovative ideas from personal experience and network. The literature review emphasizes that academic qualification is the major factor that influence an individual to recognize opportunities. On the other hand, the presentation of David Tham suggested that experience of an individual is the key factor, which helps to identify the opportunities. An entrepreneur needs to conduct market research in order o understand the market trend. It would help an entrepreneur to develop new business ideas that could facilitate people within the community. Apart from that, an entrepreneur is an individual who can identify the opportunities by utilizing personal network and experience as well.

Reference list

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