We construct a discrete choice experiment to study opportunity evaluation by entrepreneurs. This new method in entrepreneurship studies allows us to measure entrepreneurs’ utility functions and thereby their perceptions of opportunity. Consequently, we produce empirical evidence for how entrepreneurs evaluate opportunities beyond the objective facts and find two types of entrepreneurs with different evaluative behavior that cannot be explained by situational or demographic differences. We contribute to the opportunity evaluation literature by measuring perceptions, provide theoretical argument and present empirical evidence for heterogeneity among entrepreneurs, and introduce new methods that allow for more nuanced empirical analyses of entrepreneurial decision-making.

中文翻译：

---

了解感知在机会评估中的作用：离散选择实验

我们构建了一个离散选择实验来研究企业家的机会评估。创业研究中的这种新方法使我们能够衡量企业家的效用函数，从而衡量他们对机会的看法。因此，我们为企业家如何评估客观事实之外的机会提供了经验证据，并发现了两种具有不同评估行为的企业家，这些行为无法用情境或人口差异来解释。我们通过测量感知为机会评估文献做出贡献，为企业家之间的异质性提供理论论据和经验证据，并引入新方法，允许对企业家决策进行更细致的实证分析。