INFORMATION EXPOSURE, OPPORTUNITY EVALUATION, AND ENTREPRENEURIAL ACTION: AN INVESTIGATION OF AN ONLINE USER COMMUNITY

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Autio, Erkko; Dahlander, Linus; Frederiksen, Lars
• 署名单位: Imperial College London; Aarhus University
• 刊物名称: ACADEMY OF MANAGEMENT JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0001-4273
• DOI: 10.5465/amj.2010.0328
• 发表日期: 2013
• 页码: 1348-1371
• 关键词: Social networks; LEAD USERS; INNOVATION; DISCOVERY; RECOGNITION; KNOWLEDGE; creation; MARKET; field; exploitation

摘要

We study how an individual's exposure to external information regulates the evaluation of entrepreneurial opportunities and entrepreneurial action. Combining data from interviews, a survey, and a comprehensive web log of an online user community spanning eight years, we find that technical information shaped opportunity evaluation and that social information about user needs drove individuals to entrepreneurial action. Our empirical findings suggest that reducing demand uncertainty is a central factor regulating entrepreneurial action, an insight that received theories of entrepreneurial action have so far overlooked.