Opportunity Assessment Plans

Although this study meets all applicable criteria for scientific validated research, the researcher must note some limitations encountered.

Questionnaires were sent out to 260 sample units, but the actual sample size is 76, as 80 responses were successfully completed and returned while four respondents had to be excluded from the study, as they did not have business plans. Although 76 is still a satisfactory sample size, the planned sample size was 100 or more. However, due to time constraints, the study did not reach the planned sample figures. The sample size affects the confidence or faith attached to the results of the study as well as the statistical significance of statistical tests.

The respondents were required to already have a business plan in order to complete the questionnaire. Thus, the formulation of their business plan was a past event. Information about past events is often available only through surveying or interviewing people who remember the events. The study's questionnaire asked respondents to please answer honestly and accurately, but this researcher was aware of the differing time lapses between the respondents formulating their business plan and answering this questionnaire, which could cause slight distortion of actual events.

The most common levels of significance are 0.05 or 0.01, which result in confidence levels of 95 per cent or 99 per cent, respectively. This study also used a 0.1 level of significance, which results in a confidence level of 90 per cent and is not infrequent in research but is not among those most commonly used. The reason for utilising this level of significance was that one of the results marginally missed the 0.05 level of significance and thus this step was taken to avoid Type II error as well as to avoid losing a significant finding.

This study proposes the following future research areas as a means to further validate and meaningfully expand this study:

• Repeat entrepreneurs (also known as serial entrepreneurs) were not included in this study as they could be expected to be different from first-time entrepreneurs. Experience is expected to influence assessing opportunities. Thus it would be interesting to extend this study to repeat entrepreneurs.
• Investigating the cognitive processes involved in formulating a business plan was beyond the scope of this study; however, they are a vital component in explaining why the formulation process aids opportunity assessment. Thus research in this area would be significant for further validation of this study.
• The question arises: if potential entrepreneurs assess opportunities through the formulation of a business plan, would this help potential entrepreneurs establish more viable business ventures? In order to investigate this, a longitudinal study would be required.

Conclusion

In a former study of leading entrepreneurship educators, the development of a business plan was identified as being the most important feature of entrepreneurship courses. However, the relevance of a business plan has been a topic of intense and unresolved debates in more recent literature.

Thus this study analysed the relevant literature and hypothesised a future purpose of the business plan. Based on the tests conducted and the empirical results achieved, the null hypotheses (1 and 2) were rejected and the alternative hypotheses (1 and 2) were accepted. Thus, this study is significant as it proves that potential entrepreneurs distinguish between ideas and opportunities and, importantly, develop opportunities through the formulation of a detailed business plan. Therefore potential entrepreneurs assess opportunities through the formulation of a detailed business plan. The postulations are strongly supported theoretically and now the hypotheses are supported empirically.

The pertinent academic and practical significance of this study is that the study found statistically significant differences proving that a business plan is a tool that enables potential entrepreneurs to assess opportunities. Importantly, this study indicates that a detailed business plan is necessary for this purpose of assessing opportunities. Theoretically this should help potential entrepreneurs establish more viable business ventures; however, this would have to be statistically tested in further research. Finally, it re-establishes the importance or value of a business plan in the field of entrepreneurship.