Entrepreneurial opportunity recognition and growth of venture via strategic alliance: a case study of RTAP

Opportunity recognition is the first nascent step towards entrepreneurship and in the high tech sector it differs due to the tacit knowledge component. The purpose of this case is to complement existing theories and demonstrate how entrepreneurs' internal and external motivators have an impact on diagnosis and assessment of informational cues present in the external environment. This case describes how an entrepreneur assesses opportunity-related information in order to arrive at a decision while connecting them via innovative practices. It also demonstrates how strategic business alliances help new ventures to constantly meet continuous innovation pressure and how dynamic customisation and social network acts as a key driving force behind venture creation. RTAP is a small time engineering service provider, seeded by its founder when Indian economy moved towards liberalisation. The founding members were first generation entrepreneurs without any prior start-up experience. The case attempts to examine the antecedents of, and the relationships between, entrepreneurial opportunity recognition, individual-level motivation and innovation performance, strategic alliances and social networking.