Speed and learning in the opportunity development process

ABSTRACT Opportunities can be fleeting due to competitive factors or changes in markets and customer preferences; as such, speed matters. However, few studies have looked at the issue of how quickly entrepreneurial opportunities are developed, particularly with a focus on how the learning behaviors of entrepreneurs influence opportunity development speed during the entrepreneurial process. In this article, we investigate this important relationship. Specifically, we examine the role of entrepreneurs’ planned and emergent learning behaviors in opportunity development speed. Using a sample of new venture founders, and through the use of ordinary least squares regression and ordered logistic regression, our study suggests that planned learning is associated with faster opportunity development. This article contributes to entrepreneurship process research by highlighting speed in the opportunity development process and its interplay with entrepreneurs’ learning behaviors.