Technological Opportunity Detection and SMEs: A Mix of Individual and Organizational Factors

Technological entrepreneurship is associated with innovation, economic development, and great return on investments for stakeholders. However, creation and development of new patents and technologies do not automatically ensure value creation. The key challenge is to discover and exploit the opportunity of new products or services through the entrepreneurial process. The focus of this research is to explore the effect of entrepreneurial alertness on the corporate environment to provide knowledge about the mechanism of opportunity detection. A mix of individual traits and organizational factors is explored surveying CEOs and Executive Managers of 276 SMEs. The findings provide evidence of a two-level process through the corporate environment.