Presentation at: 2013 IEEE International Technology Management Conference & 19th ICE Conference, At Den Hague. How do technology-based entrepreneurs transform technological ideas into business opportunities? We explore how individual’s self-regulatory focus and institutional forces influence in the opportunity construction process. This research addresses the apparent paradox between the exploration efforts of the entrepreneur to find a use for the technological idea, with the institutional pressure advance to opportunity exploitation. We use an inductive multiple-case study with a sample of three technology-based entrepreneurs to shed some light on the phenomena. The results suggest that there is a two-stage process in the transformation of an idea into an opportunity; entrepreneur’s ability to moderate their self-regulatory focus is seen to play an important role in this process. These findings hold several implications for entrepreneurs and stakeholders interested in promoting technology-based entrepreneurship.

1. Do great technological ideas make great business opportunities?
Entrepreneur’s self-regulatory focus in opportunity building
2013 IEEE International Technology Management Conference
& 19th ICE Conference
24-26 June 2013, Den Haag
Ferran Giones (fgiones@salleurl.edu)
Dr. Francesc Miralles (fmiralles@salleurl.edu)
Full Text: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ferran_Giones/publication/243493677_Do_great_technological_ideas_make_great_business_opportunities_Entrepreneurs_self-regulatory_focus_in_opportunity_building/file/ef3175342803b6d547.pdf

2. Agenda
1. Introduction
2. Literature Review
3. Method & Data
4. Results
5. Discussion and conclusion
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3. 1. Introduction
• Technology-based Entrepreneurship:
• Entrepreneurship + Technology Innovation challenges (Hsu 2008).
• Multiple influences in the transformation of technological
ideas into successful market opportunities:
• Interplay between: individual cognitive traits, technological
development, institutional pressures.
• Prior research proposes self-regulatory theory (cognitive
processes) to further explore the phenomena (Hmieleski &
Baron 2008).
• Promotion focus: to complete the opportunity development
• Institutional pressures => Prevention focus
• The inductive multiple-case study results have implications
for entrepreneurs and policy makers.
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4. 2. Literature review (I)
• In technology entrepreneurship: idea ≠ opportunity (Teece
2010; Shane 2012).
• Discovery vs Creation
• Idea: subjective & Business Opportunity: market solution
• In uncertain and dynamic contexts, entrepreneur’s action
helps understand opportunity development (McMullen &
Shepherd 2006) (“Bricolage”).
• Social construction of opportunities perspective (Wood &
McKinley 2010).
• Preliminary market actions, “effectuation” (Sarasvathy 2001).
• Interactions with context influence legitimacy (Tornikoski 2009).
• Interactions influence entrepreneur’s confidence (Dimov 2007).
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5. 2. Literature review (II)
• But interactions rise information available on exploration and
exploitation paths – complexity (Hsu 2008).
• Focus on exploring the cognitive differences in information processing
(Baron 2007) to explain the opportunity development actions.
• Self-regulatory theory (Kuhl 1992) to explain how individuals
select between:
• Exploit opportunity at hand, minimize losses, avoid setbacks, follow initial
plan -> prevention focus.
• Fit with institutional pressures (Honig & Karlsson 2008)
• Explore further opportunities, look for new achievements, motivated by
future potential growth -> promotion focus.
• Positive influence in dynamic contexts (Hmieleski & Baron 2008)
• Does promotion cognitive biases favor the entrepreneurs idea
to opportunity transformation?
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6. 3. Method & Data
• Inductive multiple case-study.
• Three cases: BesTV, Miraveo, Securiforest.
• Entrepreneurs with different profiles and levels of experience on
technology entrepreneurship.
• Share same institutional context.
• Different technological ideas and final opportunity.
• Interviews and secondary data to build cases describing the idea to
opportunity evolution.
• Construct definitions:
• Technological idea: initial subjective idea that sparked the
entrepreneurship process (see Shane 2012).
• Business opportunity: definition of problem-solution with market
feedback (Ardichvili et al. 2003).
• Following Fisher (2012): Entrepreneur’s self-description of action
• Interaction between data and theory (Individual case story)
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7. 3. Description of Sample
13/04/11
Entrepreneur
ProfileName
Bestv Miraveo Securiforest
Founder
Education &
Background
Graduate in Political
Science and MBA -
Serial entrepreneur
Graduate and PhD
Computer Science -
University Associate
Professor
Graduate and MBA in
Business Administration
-
Executive Manager
Entrepreneurial
experience
Experience entrepreneur
with prior projects with
technology products
No prior experience Experience in new
product development but
not in startups
Technological idea Digital television
broadcasting architecture
Communication
protocol for wireless
networks
Virtual multiplatform
operating system
Business
Opportunity
Offer “on demand” rich
data services to
broadcasters using their
existing infrastructure
Offer spontaneous
communication
networks to mobile
communities with no
need for equipment
installation
Offer software testing on
multiple environments to
IT teams in large
corporations

8. 4. Results
• From idea to opportunity evolution:
• Complex Process
• Uncertainty, Choices & Feedback
• Promotion focus observed in initial transformation process of the
technological idea:
• “I started looking for potential applications” Miraveo founder
• Mixed focus (prevention & promotion focus) observed in business
opportunity development:
• “we need to identify all potential sources of risk” & “before I would make
opportunistic choices, now I need to study the financial return” BesTV
founder
• “investors want to see the opportunity” Securiforest founder
• Identification of changes in the observed self-regulatory focus of
entrepreneurs:
• “as you advance, you look more carefully at potential opportunities”
BesTV founder.
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9. 4. Results
13/04/11
Description of the
idea to opportunity
evolution
Bestv Miraveo Securiforest
Technology idea
situation
Technological idea
emerged from prior
industrial research
developments
Potential application
of a scientific research
outcome to the
industrial context
Existent technology
transferred to another
context
Initial
transformation
process
Promotion focus
Oriented exploration
– no major changes of
search path
Promotion focus
Pivoting around the
central technological
idea
Promotion focus
Different paths explored
in parallel to find the
business opportunity
Business
opportunity
development
Prevention focus –
dealing with investors
pressure and
consolidation of the
market opportunity
Promotion focus is
moderated – in search
of additional
opportunities
Promotion focus is
moderated - selected
new technologies and
new opportunities
Degree of change in
the industry/market
Stayed in the initial
market of the
technological idea
Moved sequentially
exploring different
markets
Explored different
markets in parallel

10. 5. Discussion and conclusion (I)
• Enrich prior research using self-regulatory theory in
entrepreneurship (Hmieleski & Baron 2008).
• Changes in observed entrepreneur’s self-regulatory focus.
• Institutional pressures not seen as a constrain for opportunity
development (contrary to Karlsson and Honig 2009).
• Adjust self-regulatory focus as a capability in the idea into
business opportunity transformation.
• Observation of prevention focus adoption as entrepreneurs get
closer to their business opportunity, adjusting to institutional
pressures.
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11. 5. Discussion and conclusion (II)
• Limitations: need for additional research to:
• More objective measures entrepreneur’s self-regulatory focus and
decision making mechanisms.
• Extended longitudinal study to reduce dependency on self-
reporting.
• Extend the sample
• Improve the measurement of the context (Social Network Analysis)
• Additional Industries
• Implications:
• Self-regulatory theory as a valuable perspective to study cognitive
biases influence on entrepreneurial action in early stages.
• Need for adjusted support mechanisms that take into account the
different stages of the idea to opportunity evolution process.
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