Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research 1997 Edition SUMMARIES Back to Index97 Order hard copy editions of Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research by mail

NEW VENTURE OPPORTUNITY CREATION: RESEARCHING NEW LINKAGES BETWEEN INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL AND EMERGING ENVIRONMENTAL TRENDS

SUMMARY

Names POSTER
John E. Bailey

Address
The Carlton Consulting Group
Level 2, 766 Elizabeth Street,
Melbourne, Vic, 3000
Australia

Telephone Fax
61-3-9347-8777 61-3-9347-8310

Principal Topics
This research is based upon the proposition that new entrepreneurial opportunities can be identified by capturing and combining the intellectual capital of individuals and/or companies using knowledge engineering computers software. The research has addressed two fundamental problems. First, that of capturing and categorizing intellectual capital. Second, the manipulation of intellectual capital using an opportunity-generation-engine to provide new entrepreneurial opportunities.

Method
An instrument for capturing intellectual capital was administered to a group of 20 executives from a large Australian organization. This data base was categorized by the researchers into 30 fields of knowledge. An opportunity generation engine was superimposed on the categorized data base. This engine was designed to promote the creation of previously unrecognized entrepreneurial opportunities through orchestrating various combinations, linkages and relationships between people and their intellectual capital. The opportunity generation engine was developed using a series of trends, needs and problems being faced by the customers of the executives providing the intellectual capital.

Major Findings
The research was designed to ascertain the feasibility of using data bases of intellectual capital to generate new entrepreneurial opportunities without the necessity of bringing groups of people together for discussion and dialogue. It was found that the opportunity generation engine developed in this research project cannot adequately satisfy that objective. This is because the creative combination of intellectual capital with prevailing trends, needs and problems cannot be replicated in the software at this time. However, the research methodology has provided a tool for identifying useful relationships between the various individuals with intellectual capital in the data base. Thus, the capacity is provided for people with complementary intellectual capital from within the organization, to meet together in opportunity-generation-teams and create new entrepreneurial opportunities.

Implications
It is expected that entrepreneurs, entrepreneurial organizations and entrepreneurship students will use the tools developed in this research to create opportunity-generation-teams with a higher probability of success in identifying entrepreneurial opportunities than occurs with randomly developed opportunity-generation processes.

The next progression in this research is to apply the methodology to a group of 40 entrepreneurial students who have already employed traditional techniques for opportunity-generation. This additional research will determine whether previously unidentified entrepreneurial opportunities can be generated using the systematic manipulation of intellectual capital.

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Last Updated 04/25/98