Revisiting opportunity recognition as a creative process of entrepreneurs: the roles of self-enhancement and business type

Entrepreneurship is one of the most stressful occupations in today’s society. However, there is a lack of research on the relationship between entrepreneurial challenge stressors and opportunity recognition in entrepreneurship. This study examined whether entrepreneurs’ challenge stressors can trigger opportunity recognition from the perspective of the challenge-hindrance stressor theory. The moderating roles of self-enhancement and business type were also tested. A quantitative research method was applied through surveying 307 entrepreneurs in Vietnam. We found that challenge stressors have salient effect on opportunity recognition ability of entrepreneurs and this effect varies according to different business types. Besides, our data revealed that self-enhancement value weakens the positive relationship between challenge stressors and opportunity recognition. This study has implications for entrepreneurship theory and practice, offering insight into how entrepreneurs deal with work stress to maintain high levels of opportunity recognition as a creative process.