The moderating role of self-efficacy in the mediating effect of entrepreneurial alertness in the relationship between big five personality traits and entrepreneurial opportunity recognition

Opportunities are a key component of the entrepreneurial process. Therefore, why some people recognize opportunities better than others is a valuable research topic. In this study, we investigated the individual antecedents of entrepreneurial opportunity recognition and tried to explain the causal relationships between them. The study examined the effects of Big Five personality traits on entrepreneurial opportunity recognition, the mediating effects of entrepreneurial alertness and the conditional indirect effects of self-efficacy. Data collected from a sample of 450 undergraduate and graduate students were used to test the hypotheses developed in the study. The results revealed that personality traits have significant effects on entrepreneurial opportunity recognition, entrepreneurial alertness has full mediation and self-efficacy has conditional indirect effects at medium and low levels. The results of the study may be instructive for future research and practitioners. The study extends theories of entrepreneurship, self-efficacy and personality traits.