Continuing opportunity recognition in young ventures—the role of founder and joiner experience

Elisabeth Mueller (), Lorna Syme and Thorsten Doherr
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Elisabeth Mueller: Univ. Lille, CNRS, UMR 9221 - LEM - Lille Economie Management, IESEG School of Management
Lorna Syme: Federal Statistical Office of Germany
Thorsten Doherr: Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW)

Small Business Economics, 2025, vol. 65, issue 4, No 7, 2259-2276

Abstract: Abstract We analyze the continuing role of prior technical experience of top-management team (TMT) members for opportunity recognition beyond the initial market entry choice in young ventures. We are drawing on and extending the theory of opportunity recognition by studying continuing opportunity recognition and by distinguishing the roles of founders and joining TMT members. Specifically, we investigate the recognition of digital opportunities by young ventures initially focused on a non-digital offering for a sample of 6672 firms. First, our study shows that founders’ prior technical experience influences opportunity recognition beyond the time of founding. Second, whereas founders contribute to opportunity recognition with both general and specialized prior knowledge, joining TMT members have a narrower role because for them just specialized prior knowledge is relevant. We contribute to the entrepreneurship literature by providing a more nuanced understanding of the role of prior knowledge for opportunity recognition.

Keywords: Opportunity recognition; Founder and non-founder experience; Top-management team; Technical experience; Digital technology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: M13 O32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1007/s11187-025-01055-w

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