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Entrepreneurial Discovery as Constrained, Sytematic Search

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Abstract

This research uses a randomized, two-sample, post-test experiment to pit the alertness perspective against a new approach for searching systematically for venture ideas to create new wealth. The new approach uses self-selected consideration sets to constrain an entrepreneur’s search domain, which makes it possible to maximize the search results. The constrained domain conforms to the behavior of repeat entrepreneurs who do not search the whole world for venture ideas. Subjects in the treatment group were successful 60% of the time compared with 6.25% success rate for the control group. Fourteen percent of control group emulated the treatment group without receiving instructions to do so.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Business, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, USA

    James O. Fiet & Pankaj C. Patel

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  1. James O. Fiet
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  2. Pankaj C. Patel
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Correspondence to James O. Fiet.

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Fiet, J.O., Patel, P.C. Entrepreneurial Discovery as Constrained, Sytematic Search. Small Bus Econ 30, 215–229 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-006-9010-5

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