Study On The Influence Of Entrepreneurial Passion On Opportunity Recognition

As China has entered a new stage of high-quality development,high-quality innovation and entrepreneurship have become an important support for high-quality economic development.As the basis and prerequisite for entrepreneurship,high-quality entrepreneurial opportunity recognition is still an important practical problem faced by entrepreneurs under the dynamic environment dominated by opportunity entrepreneurship.However,influenced by high tension of international environment,domestic industrial structure adjustment,and rapid iteration of emerging technologies,entrepreneurial process is facing increasing risks and uncertainties.Entrepreneurs,as the core subjects of entrepreneurship,are subjected to huge pressure and high-density emotional cues,which greatly affect their initiative and enthusiasm to identify opportunities.Therefore,how to effectively mobilize entrepreneurs’ emotions and drive high-quality entrepreneurial opportunity recognition has become an important topic in current entrepreneurial research.However,extant studies pay more attention on the static state or single perspective of opportunity recognition,and mostly focus on the impact of entrepreneurs’ cognition and behavior during opportunity recognition process,which makes the driving mechanism and evolution process of opportunity recognition remain further investigation.Meanwhile,entrepreneurial passion covers two psychological traits,emotion and identity,and is an important entry point to interpret the driving mechanism and evolution process of opportunity recognition.In view of this,based on the opportunity and learning related theory,social cognitive theory and identity theory,qualitative and quantitative research methods such as literature research,exploratory case study,factor analysis and regression analysis are conduted to reveal the internal mechanism and process path of entrepreneurial passion affecting opportunity recognition from a process perspective.The results not only enrich the relevant theoretical research,but also provide theoretical guidance and path reference for entrepreneurs.The main research contents and conclusions are as follows:(1)Opportunity recognition is analyzed and the process path is constructed.Guided by opportunity and learning related theories,following the nature of opportunity that is to establish new "means-ends" relationships,and combining cognitive and behavioral perspectives,this paper adopts exploratory multi-case study to analyze six opportunity recognition units.The results show that opportunity recognition can be divided into two stages:idea generation and idea incubation.In the first stage,entrepreneurs identify the"means" or "ends" in the "means-ends" relationships through information perception and belief generation.In incubation phase,entrepreneurs’ behaviors include information search,entrepreneurial learning and resource matching,while entrepreneurial learning also belongs to cognitive process.After reciprocating iteration of the three links,entrepreneurs is able to recognize "ends" or "means" matched to the first phase,and further optimize the "means".Thus,the possibilities of establishing the "means-ends" relationships are defined and opportunities are recognized.(2)The internal mechanism of entrepreneurial passion influencing opportunity recognition is explored.Based on social cognitive theory and identity theory,the exploratory multi-case study is adopted to comprehensively explain the affecting mechanism according to six opportunity recognition units.The results show that:1)Through cognitive mapping and cognitive promotion,entrepreneurial passion influences the formation of entrepreneurs’ goal cognition,further strengthens their behavioral tendencies,and promotes entrepreneurs to start the process of opportunity recognition;2)Entrepreneurial passion can effectively mobilize the individual initiative of entrepreneurs,thus improving and enhancing their cognition and action during opportunity recognition;3)Entrepreneurial passion plays an important role in facilitating the transition from idea generation to idea incubation;4)Entrepreneurial learning is the core link in the path of entrepreneurial passion influencing opportunity recognition.(3)Empirical analysis is adopted to test and reveal the impact of entrepreneurial passion on opportunity recognition.An integrated relationship model concerning entrepreneurs’entrepreneurial passion,entrepreneurial learning,entrepreneurial experience and opportunity recognition is constructed,and the large-sample empirical analysis is conducted to quantify the relationship.The results show that all three identity dimensions covered by entrepreneurial passion have different level of direct positive impact on opportunity recognition outcome.Different dimensions of entrepreneurial passion have preference on entrepreneurial learning style,and there exist differences among the indirect path through entrepreneurial learning to opportunity recognition outcome.Among them,inventing passion and developing passion can indirectly affect through both two dimensions of entrepreneurial learning,while founding passion can only indirectly affect through exploitative learning.The relationship between inventing passion and exploitative learning was negatively moderated by low score entrepreneurial experience.High score entrepreneurial experience positively moderates the relationship between exploratory learning and opportunity recognition outcome.