09/30/2024
By Kanan Asif

The Manning School of Business, Department of Marketing, Entrepreneurship, & Innovation invites you to attend a doctoral dissertation proposal defense by Kanan Asif on “Persist, Pivot, Hibernate, or Terminate Opportunities? An Individual-Opportunity Fit Approach to Entrepreneurial Decision-Making.”

Candidate Name: Kanan Asif
Degree: Doctoral
Defense Date: Oct. 8, 2024
Time: 11:30 a.m.
Location: Pulichino Tong Business (PTB) Center 462

Committee:

  • Committee Co-Chair: Michael Ciuchta, Professor, Manning School of Business, University of Massachusetts Lowell
  • Committee Co-Chair: Ann Kronrod, Associate Professor, Manning School of Business, University of Massachusetts Lowell
  • Committee Member: M. Berk Talay, Professor, Manning School of Business, University of Massachusetts Lowell
  • Committee Member: Regan Stevenson, Associate Professor, Kelley School of Business, Indiana University

Brief Abstract:

Entrepreneurs often face the dilemma of whether to persist with or abandon opportunities, which can lead to the premature abandonment of promising ventures or the unwarranted persistence in failing ones. Previous research predominantly adopts a binary approach to this decision-making process, which does not adequately reflect the complexity of the real world. Furthermore, prior studies do not address what entrepreneurs do when they attribute high value to an opportunity but perceive a lack of readiness for exploitation, or perceive low value in an opportunity but high readiness to exploit a business opportunity. This study seeks to address these gaps by introducing the concept of opportunity hibernation, defined as the temporary suspension of entrepreneurial efforts towards exploiting opportunities, with the intention of revisiting them in the future. Additionally, this study proposes a decision-making framework based on perceived individual-opportunity fit, predicting entrepreneurs’ decisions to persist, pivot, hibernate, or terminate opportunity pursuit. This framework offers a more nuanced and comprehensive approach to entrepreneurial decision-making, with significant implications for entrepreneurship theory and practice. It provides a more inclusive and coherent understanding of opportunity-related decision-making within the complex landscape of venture creation.