Defining opportunity identification competence

6.4.2 Defining opportunity identification competence

Charting the OI process yields insight into what opportunities are and how they come into being. Accordingly, the role of employees in the OI process is an explicit component of this thesis’ research interest, and the capability of employees to identify opportunities was its main construct, approached from a competence theory perspective. As Mulder (2014) states: “A competency is a part of generic competence; it is a coherent cluster of knowledge, skills and attitudes which can be utilized in real performance contexts” (p. 111). As explained in Chapter 2, knowledge, skills and attitude components can be recognised in OIC. As a capability, OIC consists, according to the results of the current dissertation, of the main competencies of business idea generation and business idea evaluation. As stated in Chapter 1, two characteristics of competencies are that (1) individuals can develop competencies (Kyndt & Baert, 2015) and (2) competencies are always connected to a certain context (Biemans et al., 2009). In light of these two characteristics, it is considered relevant and interesting to elaborate on the questions: to what extent does evidence show that individuals can develop OIC?

And secondly: to what extent do a variety of individual employees need OIC?

Developing OIC

The results of Chapter 4 suggest that those who have confidence in their own ability to think of new ideas, and who actively engage in entrepreneurial activities on the shop floor (i.e., EEA), get significantly more ideas adopted by their management. These results point towards the influencing role of the business context in OIC. Moreover, in Chapter 4, OIC was approached from an entrepreneurial learning perspective. As discussed in this chapter, entrepreneurs often learn by doing (Cope, 2005; Wang &

Chugh, 2014). The result in Chapter 4 that EEA was the most important explaining variable of OIC suggests that learning by doing is also important in the context of existing businesses. These results tentatively confirm the notion of OIC as something employees can develop, for instance by participating in entrepreneurial activities.

Other studies have been conducted to investigate whether individuals can develop OIC. For instance, DeTienne and Chandler (2004) showed in their empirical study that individuals can generate significantly more ideas and more innovative ideas when they receive training. As well, the results of the study conducted by Karimi, Biemans, Lans, Aazami, and Mulder (2014) suggest that OIC can be developed. In their quasi-experimental pre-test/post-test design with a control group, they offered creativity exercises and activities to the participants from the experimental group. The results show that the participants from the experimental group generated a greater

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number of business ideas and more innovative business ideas after they had received training, and also as compared to the control group.

Based on the results of the current dissertation, it is not possible to conclude without a doubt whether it is truly possible to develop OIC. Still, in line with the studies of DeTienne and Chandler (2004) and Karimi and colleagues (2014), the results lend credence to the notion that OIC can be approached as a capability, something people can learn and develop. In the context of existing businesses, longitudinal research is desirable to investigate whether employees can develop and improve their OIC over the long term. Entrepreneurial employees who actively participate in entrepreneurial activities could also be followed for a longer period of time, in order to explore the development of their OIC.

Who needs OIC?

In the current research, employees fulfilling all kinds of jobs and roles were invited to participate in the assessment. Beyond the methodological advantages of mixed groups (i.e., creating comparable groups among organisations), all types of employees were invited because of the expectation (as mentioned in Chapter 1) that people with various backgrounds are involved in entrepreneurship (Desjardins, Lans, & Ederer, 2016;

Toner, 2011). However, the question remains whether all employees should have OIC to the same extent, or that some employees can benefit more than others from having such competence.

Bosma and colleagues (2013) found that only about 5% of the adult population is involved in EEA. Entrepreneurial employees are often (1) managers, (2) professionals, or (3) technicians and associate professionals. By far the biggest group of entrepreneurial employees are managers, likely because of their desire for and role in promoting entrepreneurial behaviour among their employees (Bosma et al., 2013). A comparable impression of entrepreneurial employees is conveyed in literature on the realisation of innovation in businesses. In her study, Olsen (2016) investigated the link between learning processes and innovation. She asked the opinion on this topic of employees “working in environments that focus on innovation and in environments which focus on learning and competence development” (Olsen, 2016, p. 213).

Participating in the research were HR managers, and (project) managers and employees in R&D and product development; this set of participants demonstrates who Olsen expects to be involved in innovation and learning. Støren (2016) defined in her study the “innovative strategic learner” (p. 181). These are people who “keep themselves updated, are curious, are able to learn something new from the work they

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do, use previous knowledge strategically, like to get to the bottom of difficult things, and in addition, quite frequently solve complex problems at work” (p. 181).

Although innovation and entrepreneurship are different concepts, the literature on innovation does help to get a better grasp on who is involved in entrepreneurship.

From a research point of view, scholars seem to expect that especially employees with responsibilities having to deal with complex problems are involved in entrepreneurial activities. Consider, for instance, managers, and R&D and HR professionals. Beyond these professionals, it might depend on the context of the organisation and the purpose of the employer to what degree (other) employees need OIC. In innovation-driven organisations, the need for OIC is expected to be higher than in production-oriented organisations that rarely innovate. Also at knowledge-intensive organisations, for instance, OIC should be present among a broad range of employees, because knowledge develops quickly and consequently employees have to be able to deal with an ever-changing environment.

From the perspective of employees, many factors determine whether or not they are able and willing to identify opportunities. These factors include, for instance, the working environment (e.g., degree of complexity of work), how employees feel about generating ideas (i.e., creative self-efficacy), the activities in which they participate (e.g., involvement in entrepreneurial activities), and prior knowledge in a given domain. As discussed in Chapter 2, OIC is related to a specific domain, and prior knowledge in a domain helps the individual to identify an opportunity in that specific domain (Shane, 2000). Beyond these personal and organisational factors, it may also depend on the nature of employees’ contracts whether or not they are able and willing to identify opportunities. For instance, temporary (agency) workers and seasonal workers might want to identify opportunities mainly for themselves, as a way to stay employable.

Employees with such contracts might feel an urgency to identify opportunities to explore possible career paths. OIC can be used by employees in different ways and with different goals in mind.

In sum, the literature suggests that not every employee needs entrepreneurial competencies to the same extent. Some employees can benefit more than others from OIC, as when identifying opportunities is part of their job (such as among managers and R&D professionals) or important in the context of their own career. Nevertheless, OIC is considered a worthwhile competence domain for all employees, because it is at the core of the entrepreneurial process. Entrepreneurship always starts with the identification of an opportunity. Consequently, OIC can be valuable for other employees who could think of ideas such as how the production cycle can be made