Determinants of the perception of opportunity

Abstract

Contemporary strategic management has accepted the category of opportunity, although it cannot be reflected in the organization’s plans and strategies. Alertness, proactivity, social networks and knowledge resources are the categories that come up most often when discussing opportunity perception as one of the determinants of entrepreneurial activity. In reality, they are the result of both behavioral and cognitive processes. The purpose of the article is to identify the primary factors that predetermine the idiosyncrasy of how opportunity is perceived by various persons, such as creativity, intuition, and divergent thinking. The article presents opportunity value chain, paraphrases the order of M.E. Porter’s value chain and the A. Koestler’s concept of ‘bisociation’. The article also discusses the process of group decision making in terms of opportunity. The article has been based on a study of the subject’s literature, but the conclusions provide important directions that are utilitarian in nature.