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Idea Sets: Conceptualizing and Measuring a New Unit of Analysis in Entrepreneurship Research

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: s.a.hill{at}lse.ac.uk.

	Abstract

Idea sets—the complete stock of entrepreneurial ideas an individual has accessible within his or her memory at any given time—are proposed as a new unit of analysis through which the antecedents, processes, and outcomes of entrepreneurial opportunity recognition may be more fully understood. A number of dimensions are identified along which one person’s idea set may be compared with that of another person. These comprise the novelty, volume, content, stage of development, strategic value logic, and composite knowledge configuration of ideas within the idea set. The idea set construct and the methods advocated for its empirical operationalization provide a differentiated, comprehensive approach to investigating entrepreneurial opportunities. They also help to overcome sample selection and survival biases characterizing empirical research in this domain. A questionnaire-based idea set instrument, designed and tested in the corporate context, demonstrates good evidence of content, convergent and divergent validities.

First published on September 21, 2009
Organizational Research Methods 2009, doi:10.1177/1094428109337542


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