The Formation of Opportunity Prototypes in Technology Entrepreneurship: Does Human Capital Matter?

In recognizing that cognitive prototypes are vital for entrepreneurs to recognize entrepreneurial opportunities, the present chapter aims to shed light on the relationship between technology entrepreneurs’ human capital and their entrepreneurial opportunity prototypes. A Mann–Whitney U test is conducted to assess the differences in technology entrepreneurs’ opportunity prototypes due to prior start-up experience, formal education, and prior work experience in a sample of 27 technology entrepreneurs. Our findings show that experienced and novice entrepreneurs have diverse opportunity prototypes, with the former more focused on the potential economic and financial results which may be achieved by exploiting a particular opportunity. The work enhances our understanding of the role of prototypes and technology entrepreneurs’ stock of experience, background, and capability to identify entrepreneuriatl opportunities.