Fostering Entrepreneurial Opportunity Identification Capability in Higher Education

Summary

Opportunity Identification (OI) is a key entrepreneurial capability. Although it was once viewed as an element exclusive to business environments and those involved, it has now been embedded in international policies to foster the entrepreneurial capacity of all citizens, especially university students. To date, many studies have explored, identified, and understood the OI capability and its antecedents. However, there is no consensus among scholars on how to improve this capability in an educational context. Moreover, limited empirical research has been conducted on developing this capability among higher education students.

This research project aims to address these gaps and delve deeper into how to effectively enhance OI capability among university students. This goal is approached first by conducting a conceptual and a literature review study to craft evidence-informed frameworks for designing constructively aligned entrepreneurship education courses, essential for effectively improving OI capability. Based on these frameworks and inspired by the creativity literature, the study then aims to identify an instructional design model for organizing brainstorming sessions that are effective in generating quality business opportunities.