Evaluating entrepreneurial opportunities: Examining the initial rule importance in the rule-based reasoning framework

This thesis has researched the initial evaluation rules of university students. Three relevant evaluation rules (Novelty, Resource Efficiency & Worst-case Scenario) were selected, resulting in two research questions: ‘How important do individuals find each of the three evaluation rules for determining the opportunity attractiveness?’ and ‘Do different individuals find different evaluation rules to be more important?’. An opportunity evaluation framework was formed, utilizing the three evaluation rules and a rule-based reasoning technique, to assess the opportunity attractiveness in a traditional conjoint experiment. Main results: Novelty: β = 1.34 and p < 0.001 Resource Efficiency: β = 2.07 and p < 0.001 Worst-case Scenario: β = -1.94 and p < 0.001 Four interaction variables were investigated: Education, Entrepreneurial Experience, Gender and Prior Knowledge. Interaction results: - Relation between Resource Efficiency and Opportunity Attractiveness became less positive when students did a non-technical study. - Relation between Worst-case Scenario and Opportunity Attractiveness became less negative when students did a non-technical study. - Relation between Resource Efficiency and Opportunity Attractiveness became less positive when students were female. - Relation between Resource Efficiency and Opportunity Attractiveness became more positive when Prior Knowledge was higher. Results show differences between different students do exist, yet only limitedly.